LAS VEGAS (AP) - A 21-year-old Las Vegas man has been charged with abducting two women at gunpoint, including one who said he stole her car and another, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas student, who told police he forced her to drive off-campus and committed lewd acts against her.
Juh’Juan Dayvon Washington’s court-appointed lawyer, Kambiz Shaygun, declined Thursday to comment about the case after a judge on Wednesday labeled Washington a danger to the community and set his bail at $1 million pending a Dec. 13 preliminary hearing.
Washington is expected to plead not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges including auto theft, lewdness, armed robbery and kidnapping, which carries a possible sentence of up to life in prison.
A police arrest report identifies Washington as a suspect in three other attempted kidnappings at UNLV, and said he was arrested Sept. 18 by Clark County school police for allegedly loitering near a school.
Court records show the school loitering charge was dismissed Sept. 21 when Washington pleaded guilty to providing a false statement to police. A judge ordered him freed from jail for three days already served.
Washington was arrested Sunday and charged Wednesday with forcing the UNLV student at gunpoint into her car in a campus parking structure and making her drive to a nearby community center parking lot where he allegedly forced her to take part in lewd acts.
The woman told police that while her attacker was fixing his pants, she grabbed the handgun he had wielded, and her cellphone, which police said he used to record himself during the encounter.
She said she chased the man away before calling 911 and surrendering the gun to police officers who reported finding her vehicle with the engine still running.
The woman in a pre-dawn Thursday attack told police she was approached in the parking lot of her apartment by a man she later identified as Washington.
She said he displayed a handgun and forced her at gunpoint to drive to a place where he let her out of the car, switched from the passenger to the driver’s seat, and drove away.
The vehicle was found later in an area in southeast Las Vegas.
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