Las Vegas murderer was missing for over a year before Nevada prison officials noticed

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) - Nevada prison officials did not know a convicted murderer was missing until they realized he was not in custody ahead of a scheduled parole hearing, Nexstar's KLAS investigators reported Monday.

According to county prosecutors, Kelly had been “incorrectly released" from custody, documents said.

In 1999, a Clark County jury convicted Jeremy Kelly, 43, on charges of first-degree murder with the use of a deadly weapon, robbery with the use of a deadly weapon, burglary while in possession of a firearm or deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to commit robbery, records said.

In June 1996, Las Vegas Metro police arrested Kelly, then 15, in the shooting death of Terry Dixon. At the time of his arrest, Kelly and the victim’s son were driving the victim’s stolen truck, documents said.

Prosecutors alleged Kelly, the victim’s son and three other men conspired to rob Dixon, but shot and killed him instead. A judge later sentenced Kelly to two consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole.

Kelly was in custody at High Desert Station Prison outside Las Vegas when the Nevada Parole Board granted him parole in 2016, documents said. Less than two years later, Kelly violated his parole and returned to NDOC custody.

In December 2017, Las Vegas Metro police arrested Kelly after they found him driving with a gun, drugs and nearly $8,000 in cash, documents said. An officer had stopped Kelly for driving without his headlights illuminated.

In a probation violation report, officials noted Kelly failed to report to his probation officer in September 2017 and was placed on a curfew. Kelly was later charged in federal court and moved to federal custody.

Kelly later pleaded guilty to charges of a felon in possession of a firearm and possession of heroin, documents said. A federal judge then sentenced Kelly to 42 months in prison with 18 months of credit for the time he served in custody awaiting trial.

According to county prosecutors, after his federal sentence ended in June 2022, Kelly “was mistakenly and incorrectly released from federal custody” and not returned to state prison for violating probation, documents said.

Kelly’s NDOC record shows him in “out of state confinement,” though he was released in 2022. His parole hearing was scheduled for Jan. 30.

It was not until last December that the Department of Corrections realized Kelly was not in their custody. The realization came as Kelly would have been eligible for parole in January 2024.

“The [Bureau of Prisons] previously contacted [the Clark County Detention Center] regarding designation of Kelly, but CCDC advised they did not need him back,” a prosecutor wrote in court documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained. The BOP did not contact the [Nevada Department of Corrections] and the NDOC did not place a hold with the BOP for Kelly.”

Judge Jacqueline Bluth issued a warrant for Kelly’s arrest on Jan. 25, records said.

“The Nevada Department of Corrections was looking for the defendant's location for his parole hearing it was at that they realized the defendant was not returned to their custody,” court minutes from the hearing said.

Metro police arrested Kelly on Feb. 16, though specific details about his arrest were unknown Monday. He was booked into the Clark County jail, though a hearing on his arrest was not scheduled as of Monday.

Neither the BOP nor NDOC responded to a KLAS request for more information Monday, likely due to the Presidents Day holiday. It remained unclear Monday how the chain of information was supposed to function and which agency, if not both, was responsible for alerting the other.

A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In 2022, convicted murderer Porfirio Duarte-Herrera escaped from Southern Desert Correctional Center by breaking part of a window, climbing through it and then scaling razor wire fences.

Duarte-Herrera escaped on a Friday night and prison staff did not report his escape until the following Tuesday morning. Duarte-Herrera had an illegal cell phone inside the prison and made several calls before his escape, documents said. Multiple agencies searched for Duarte-Herrera for two days.

Duarte-Herrera and Omar Rueda-Denvers were convicted in 2009 for killing Dorantes Antonio, who died when a bomb, hidden in a coffee cup, exploded. The incident happened at a parking garage at the Luxor Hotel in 2007.

Duarte-Herrera was already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.