Sexual Assault at Nevada Casino 25 Years Ago Lands Suspect in Jail

Posted on: December 14, 2020, 02:54h. 

Last updated on: December 14, 2020, 03:41h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

A 44-year-old man is behind bars in Las Vegas, accusing of sexually assaulting a juvenile female 25 years ago at a hotel-casino in Laughlin, Nevada.

Harrah's Laughlin
Harrah’s Laughlin Hotel and Casino is in Southern Nevada on the Arizona border. According to authorities, a juvenile female said she was assaulted at a high school graduation party here in 1995. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Enoch Jeremy Spina was booked Sunday into the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas. He is scheduled for a court date Tuesday on one count of sexual assault, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Police said a juvenile female in late May 1995 reported being sexually assaulted at Harrah’s Laughlin Hotel and Casino. Laughlin is about an hour and a half south of Las Vegas on the Arizona border.

At the time, the female juvenile reported drinking at a high school graduation party in a room at the resort, police said. She passed out in the room. She later was moved to a different room where Spina was staying at the resort, the newspaper reported.

Hours later she awoke and determined, based on evidence in the room, that she had been sexually assaulted.

Facebook Friend Request

According to a DNA analysis in 1995, Spina could not eliminated. However he was not arrested, the Review-Journal reported.

Another analysis in 2019 indicated the DNA from the incident was a match to Spina’s, according to the newspaper. A cold case detective with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department got in touch with the woman who had been assaulted in 1995 to see if she wanted to pursue a case against this suspect. She said she wanted him prosecuted, according to the newspaper.

During the investigation, police learned Spina had sent the woman a Facebook friend request on Christmas Day in 2010. The woman’s mother sent a response, police said.

Why would you contact my daughter after what you did to her?” the mother asked.

According to authorities, Spina replied, “First of all I don’t know her side, obviously, and second, I just wanted to apologize for what she felt was wrong that happened. I’m sure we both made mistakes that night and I honestly wanted to offer my sincirest (sic) apologies to her and hope that she can possibly forgive me one day as well.”

Laughlin Murder

Laughlin recently was in the news when the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for an Arizona man found guilty of murdering a friend over a gambling debt. The 1994 incident began when the now-convicted killer traveled to Laughlin to gamble with his girlfriend and another man.

In another killing over a gambling debt, a 70-year-old man was sentenced in Wisconsin to life in prison this month for stabbing an 88-year-old man to death over a $100 gambling debt.