Woman ‘scared to death’ of man accused of killing her, police affidavit says

A man who was arrested on suspicion of choking a woman in October 2022 and then allegedly violating a temporary protective order she had brought against him is now accused of killing her a few days after that protective order expired, police said.

Ronald Martin Hetzel, Jr., was taken into custody on Feb. 4 in California after Metro police say he killed a woman later identified by the Clark County coroner’s office as Shirley Williams, 56, of Las Vegas.

According to an affidavit filed by a Metropolitan Police Department detective prior to Hetzel’s arrest, officers were dispatched to a home in the 4000 block of Edgeford Place, near South Valley View Boulevard and Pennwood Avenue in the Spring Valley area of Las Vegas, just after 10 a.m. on Jan. 29.

According to the affidavit, officers arrived to find Williams on the bedroom floor. She was pronounced dead.

‘Scared to death of Ron’

Williams was described in the affidavit as having been an ex-girlfriend to Hetzel, with the affidavit also stating she was no longer intimately involved with Hetzel and had been trying to evict him a few months before her death.

“Shirley told (the friend) that she was scared to death of Ron,” the report stated.

Officers interviewed somebody — their name was blacked out from the arrest affidavit — who said they were at a mini mart when Hetzel drove up in Williams’ red Hyundai Elantra. Hetzel told the person he “killed his girlfriend” by choking her and was trying to get enough money to go to Mexico. Hetzel also apparently gave somebody Williams’ phone and had a visible scratch on his forehead that Hertzel claimed to have received during a fight with Williams, the affidavit said.

Police said in the arrest warrant that Hetzel was arrested for battery domestic violence on Oct. 20, 2022, and that Williams was listed as the victim.

“Shirley was no longer intimate with Ronald and was in the process of evicting him. Ronald slapped the left side of her face with his right hand,” the affidavit alleged.

Williams’ friend, whose name was blacked out, told police that about four months before Williams’ death, “Ron tried to jump on Shirley but some of her friends stopped him.

“Ron was hurt during the incident and blamed Shirley claiming that she set him up,” the affidavit said.

On Dec. 27, Hetzel was arrested for violating a temporary protective order. On Jan. 25, 2023, that order expired, according to the arrest affidavit.

Hetzel, who was described by one of the people interviewed by police during the investigation — all of whom had their names blacked out from the affidavit — said “everyone knew Ron had a violent temper.”

Previous domestic battery arrests

According to the affidavit, Hetzel is also a registered ex-felon from a 2010 arrest and conviction on a charge of battery domestic violence, strangulation.

Justice Court records show Hetzel has had multiple cases and arrests since 2004, with two more domestic battery arrests in 2004 and 2009 before his 2010 conviction.

Williams and Hetzel became roommates about a year earlier and had starting dating six months earlier, a person whose identity was blacked out in the affidavit told police.

Police interviewed a friend of Williams’ whose name was redacted. The person told police that Hetzel had “malice toward Shirley because she would get him arrested” and that Hetzel “would try to choke her and hold/pin her down on the ground,” the affidavit stated.

Another person interviewed by police said a “frantic” Hetzel “kept saying she (Shirley) was dead” and he “stated something like she was blue and cold,” the affidavit said.

On Jan. 31, according to Metro police, the detective investigating Williams’ killing got a call from Bullhead City police who said Hetzel was “acting weird” at a local thrift store and trying to donate items. He also had several extra license plates that he said he would need in case he needed to switch plates.

Hetzel was also driving Williams’ red Hyundai Elantra. He had also left a cardboard box that had Williams’ name on it, police said.

There was no indication from the affidavit that Hetzel was arrested in Bullhead City, but the items he had on him, including the box with Williams’ name on it, were impounded.

In a news release issued by Metro on Feb. 6, police said Hetzel was arrested in California and was in custody in San Bernardino, California, on one count of open murder pending extradition to Las Vegas.

As of Sunday, it was unclear if Hetzel was still in custody in California, and there was no online record yet of Hetzel having been transferred to the Clark County Detention Center.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrettClarkson_ on Twitter.