Prostitute faces murder, other charges in slaying
Las Vegas police on Sunday arrested a 19-year-old prostitute they believe was an accomplice in the slaying of 62-year-old Heinz Jurgen Wietfeldt, who was found dead in the back of his Cadillac Escalade in March.
Simone Taylor, who initially told police she tried to talk her boyfriend and his friend out of shooting Wietfeldt, was booked on multiple charges including murder with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder, burglary and robbery.
Her boyfriend and pimp, 27-year-old Kenneth Thomas, and his friend, 27-year-old David Jones, were arrested in April on similar charges and remain at the Clark County Detention Center.
They await a preliminary hearing on the case next month.
Wietfeldt's body was found in his car March 19, in a quiet Southern Highlands neighborhood.
He had been bound with telephone cords and gagged with cloth and duct tape. He had a bullet hole in his leg and his head.
Wietfeldt had taken Taylor to his house and out to dinner on several occasions, according to her arrest report.
He "had an affinity for young black female prostitutes," one of Wietfeldt's friends told police.
On March 16, Taylor lured Wietfeldt to her apartment, where Thomas and Jones were waiting to rob him, police said.
They beat him up, bound and gagged him and left him in a closet as he bled "heavily" and complained of having a heart attack, Taylor told police.
Jones went to a hardware store to get duct tape and a large plastic bin. Taylor went to Wietfeldt's east Las Vegas house and took a handgun from his safe. Wietfeldt had given her the safe combination, the arrest report said.
When they returned to the apartment, Thomas and Jones carried Wietfeldt to the back of his Escalade in the plastic tub. Near Southern Highlands, they pulled over and Thomas shot Wietfeldt multiple times, according to the report.
They abandoned the Escalade with Wietfeldt's body in it.
An acquaintance later told police that Taylor admitted to having stolen the gun from the safe. Investigators also found her prints on the weapon.
She had told police that she fanned Wietfeldt and gave him water while he was bound and gagged and pleaded with her boyfriend not to kill him.
Contact reporter Lawrence Mower at lmower@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0440.
