Las Vegas man shot, killed man before enlisting help to dispose body: police

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Las Vegas man is accused of shooting and killing a man inside of his home and enlisting another man to dump his body in an empty lot near the Strip, according to an arrest report.

Loth Rodriguez, 67, of Las Vegas faces a charge of open murder, records showed.

On April 28 around 9:14 p.m., Metro police received a report of a body wrapped in a tarp in the 800 block of East Sahara Avenue. When officers arrived they found they found a “decomposed” man, later identified as Robert Rodriguez, wrapped in a silver tarp in the corner of the lot, police said.

There was a black braided rope attached to one end of the tarp that ran the length of the body and was wrapped around Robert’s ankles. His cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head and was ruled a homicide, according to police.

On April 29, LVMPD Homicide received an email stating “Private Drive and 844 Sahara Empty lot” with the subject line “800 SAHARA Homicide.” No other information was provided in the email but a second email stated “Here’s a picture” and attached three copies of the same image showing a tarp wrapped around a body on the ground. Police attempted to contact the sender but did not get a response, the report said.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business showed that on April 21 around 5 a.m., a man was pushing a flat cart with items on it and the tarp. The man also was holding a phone with the flashlight on while discarding the body wrapped in the tarp., according to the report.

On May 1, officers spoke with a couple who said they heard from a woman that her boyfriend Robert was shot in the head by a man known in the community, who then recruited someone to dump the body, the report said.

Officers later witnessed an argument between two unhoused men and conducted a stop, during which they noticed one of the men matched the man seen on the surveillance footage dumping the body.

Officers took Gennady Zhuravlyon, 48, into custody. During an interview, Zhuravlyon told police that he “pushes lots of carts” and asked, “Where’s the body?” He demanded to see the body, claiming there wasn’t one on the cart, police said.

When officers showed him photos of the body, he was disgusted and complained about being shown the image. Zhuravlyon never provided a statement or denied involvement or knowledge of the murder, the report said.

On May 2, officers learned that on April 20, Robert and a woman went to a gas station to try and get an “Obama phone.” The woman was going to go to Loth’s house but told Robert to stay at the gas station and wait because the two men did not get along and had issues in the past.

While the woman was at Loth’s house, Robert got impatient and went to the house to get her. The door was unlocked to Robert walked into the house and began arguing with Loth. Loth was reportedly upset over Robert borrowing a phone that he never returned and was jealous an unnamed person went to go live with Robert “on the streets,” the report said.

During the argument, Robert said “What’re you gonna [expletive] do about it?” and the men kept calling each other names and “disrespecting” each other.

Loth then shot Robert and threatened the woman to not touch or help Robert as he “fought for air.” Loth told the woman, “Don’t touch him or help him or you’ll die right next to him,” according to the report.

He gave the woman money to go gamble and she left, stepping over Robert’s body, the report said.

Loth had threatened to kill Robert on more than one occasion and attempted to at least one other time, police said.

Loth Rodriguez was arrested at his home on May 3 and police found blood spatter on the walls and soaked into the carpet. They also found rope that matched the rope tied around Robert’s ankles.

Loth told police that he fired the round to “scare Rob” and did not mean to hit him saying “It was a mistake, I shot,” according to police.

Loth Rodriguez is scheduled to appear in court in July.

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