Man held in slaying faces similar charge

A man facing murder charges in the death of a 61-year-old woman has been indicted in the death of another woman, Las Vegas police said Tuesday.

Yiorkis Laurencio Pineda is suspected of binding, gagging and robbing 67-year-old Patricia Brafford on May 30.

She was found by her husband later that evening dead from suffocation.

Her husband, Carey, said he was happy that Pineda had been caught.

About a month after Patricia Brafford's death, Pineda was hired to work on a couple's home in the northeast valley, according to police.

The husband left to get supplies from a hardware store and when he returned, his wife, 61-year-old Otilia Soares, was lying face down in the bushes of their backyard.

Pineda, 33, told police later that he had struck Soares in the back of her head with a "metal stake" before she fell to the ground, according to his arrest report.

Jewelry that Pineda had taken and pawned from both homes linked him to the crimes, according to police.

Carey Brafford said he met with police in July to try to identify whether several pieces of jewelry had belonged to his wife.

"I identified a ring, and a female detective said, 'Oh, we already have him in custody on some other stuff,'" he said.

Pineda was arrested on July 3 after investigators retrieved several pieces of Soares' jewelry, including her wedding ring, from two area pawnshops and traced them to Pineda.

He has remained at the Clark County Detention Center since, according to police.

Pineda is facing multiple charges, including two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, multiple burglary counts and first-degree kidnapping. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in both cases, according to police.