A 32-year-old El Cajon man arrested in Nevada was held Monday night in a downtown Las Vegas lockup on fugitive warrants in connection with the shooting death of an Orange County woman and the wounding of her boyfriend.
Julie Palasco, 48, was discovered Sunday afternoon fatally shot at a home at 5361 Duncannon Ave. in Westminster, and 49-year-old Dennis Koire was found gravely wounded in the house, Westminster police said.
Pasqual Raul Loera, 32, was held without bail tonight in Nevada on two felony fugitive warrants out of California for murder with a deadly weapon and attempted murder with a deadly weapon, a law enforcement technician in Las Vegas told City News Service.
Loera, who was taken into custody with a gunshot wound to one leg, was held in a medical ward inside the Clark County Detention Center in downtown Las Vegas, ``just down the street from the Golden Nugget casino,'' a corrections officer said in a telephone interview.
Westminster detectives in Las Vegas were expected to bring Loera back to Orange County, Westminster police spokesman Van Woodson said.
Loera has a court appearance Tuesday morning in Las Vegas.
The victims were discovered Sunday afternoon when Las Vegas Metro police called Westminster police to say they had a man detained with a gunshot wound and a crashed car traced to a Westminster address, a Westminster police spokesman said.
A security guard at a casino in Primm, a town that used to be known as State Line, had tried to question Loera, who was reportedly acting strangely, but he got into a black Infiniti car and crashed, according to Las Vegas police.
The Infiniti's registered owner lived in the 5000 block of Duncannon Avenue, police said.
When Westminster police went to the home, they found Palasco dead, Koire gravely wounded and the house ransacked, Woodson said.
Koire was hospitalized in ``serious condition'' today, Woodson said.
The car the suspect was driving was one the victims had been trying to sell, said Andy Salazar, 45, who lives near the home where the shootings occurred.
Salazar said in a telephone interview with City News Service that he had seen the Infiniti parked outside his neighbors' home before when he walked his dogs, and a police detective told him the Infiniti was the vehicle found in Nevada.
Woodson said Loera likely would be charged with murder and attempted murder.
Authorities asked anyone with more information about the killing to call police at (714) 898-3315.
