51°F
weather icon Clear

Murder suspect arrested in man’s 2019 Las Vegas death

Updated September 24, 2020 - 4:47 pm

A man accused of killing 43-year-old Geoffrey Going in Las Vegas more than a year ago was arrested Wednesday in Pahrump, Las Vegas police said.

Metropolitan Police Department homicide Lt. Ray Spencer confirmed that 25-year-old George Kahaleua-Doctorello was arrested in Going’s death. He has been charged with murder and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday, jail and court records show.

According to an arrest warrant, surveillance footage from May 30, 2019, of outside the Badlands Bar in east Las Vegas showed “what appeared to be the victim being hit or thrown to the ground” by a man believed to be Kahaleua-Doctorello.

According to the warrant, the footage also showed Kahaleua-Doctorello and a friend walk out of the bar after Going was hurt, and the two stood over Going while he was unconscious and “appeared to be talking further about the incident, re-enacting it.”

Witnesses said Kahaleua-Doctorello told others at the bar that “some guy had run up on him and (Kahaleua-Doctorello) hit him,” according to the warrant. The witness said the 25-year-old “did not describe an altercation or a fight” but said he hit Going after he asked for a lighter and “got ‘handsy,’ as in poking and touching him.”

Going was taken to a hospital after a security guard at a nearby business called 911 for the man, who was lying on the sidewalk. Medical staff at first believed he was intoxicated and didn’t discover his head injury until later, Spencer has said.

Because Kahaleua-Doctorello and his friend did not tell paramedics that Going was hurt, he was “not initially treated for the injuries” at the hospital, the warrant said.

Going died on June 7 from blunt force injuries of the head and complications thereof, according to the Clark County coroner’s office. His death was ruled a homicide.

Going was a passionate singer who moved to Las Vegas several years ago and worked on the Strip, his friend Kurt Anderson told the Review-Journal in June. He said it was frustrating feeling like no one outside Going’s circle of friends and family cared that he had been killed.

“It’s not like we were gunning for some big arrest, but you just want something more meaningful out of a tragic situation,” he said.

Anderson said in a text message Wednesday that he was glad police “are working to hold someone accountable” for his friend’s death.

Kahaleua-Doctorello was held without bail, records show.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.

Don't miss the big stories. Like us on Facebook.
THE LATEST