By Cara McCoy (contact)
Monday, March 15, 2010 | 3:23 p.m.
A California man accused of sexually assaulting a Las Vegas woman before strangling her to death in her northwest valley home in January will answer to the felony sexual assault and murder charges against him in district court.
The case against 37-year-old Derrick Valentine was bound over to district court Monday after a preliminary hearing in front of Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis.
Valentine, of Pasadena, Calif., is accused of performing a sex act on Melodie Walker, 35, against her will before choking her to death in her home in the 9100 block of Pearl Cotton Avenue, which is near the Durango Drive interchange on U.S. 95.
He is facing one count of murder and two counts of sexual assault. Prosecutors have said they could seek the death penalty against him.
Valentine was arrested Jan. 22 after a security guard called police when finding Valentine and Walker in the home. The security guard, Dovie Henderson, was sent to the home after a burglary alarm was activated.
Henderson testified Monday that she rang the doorbell at the home several times but no one responded, so she went back to her vehicle to fill out some paperwork to leave for the homeowner. As she was returning to the door to leave the packet of papers, she encountered Valentine, who opened the door.
She testified that Valentine asked her to call for an ambulance but not to call the police. Henderson called 911.
She said Valentine told her a “big white guy” had come into the home, hit him in the head and poured chemicals down his throat. Henderson testified that at first, Valentine told her he was the only person in the house.
“I asked him more than once if there was anyone inside the house besides himself and he said ‘no,’” she said. But he eventually “pretended to come out of a daze” and walked over to Walker, who was partially nude and lying on the floor, and said "tell me he didn’t do something to you, too."
Henderson testified she helped the paramedics after they arrived by shining her flashlight on Walker because the lights weren’t on in the home. She said she saw red and purple marks on the woman’s neck.
She also saw an empty bottle of 409 cleaning solution, she said.
Metro patrol officer Derrick Saxon, who was one of the first officers to respond to Walker’s home, testified that Valentine was hysterical and having trouble catching his breath when he first encountered him.
After he calmed down, Valentine said a 6-foot-tall man wearing a black jacket had come into the home and struck him in the head with a blunt object, knocking him unconscious. When he came to, he saw his ex-girlfriend was also unconscious.
Saxon said he and one of the paramedics looked at Valentine’s head and didn’t see injuries.
Metro Police homicide detective Dolphis Boucher testified at the hearing that Valentine said he and Walker were friends from high school and had dated at one time. He was visiting her in Las Vegas because he had tickets to a show.
Boucher said Valentine told him he took it personally that Walker, who was black, dated mostly white men after their relationship ended.
Boucher testified that Valentine changed his story several times during a three-hour interview with police. Eventually, he said Valentine told him he wanted to perform a sex act on Walker but knew she wouldn’t allow it, so he choked her. He testified that Valentine said he wanted to show his power over her.
Valentine explained that the sexual assault had happened in an upstairs room and that Walker was having trouble breathing after Valentine let go of her neck. She asked for water, and Valentine followed her downstairs. She then bolted out of the kitchen and activated the alarm.
Valentine said he panicked at that point and killed her because he knew she was going to call police.
He said Valentine told him that at first he used some of the cleaning solution to try and clean up blood upstairs. Then he decided he wanted to die, so he drank some of it.
Boucher, who attended Walker’s autopsy, said she had defensive wounds on her neck that indicated she tried to pull her attacker’s hands away.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office said she had been strangled to death.
Deputy public defender Edward Kane, who is representing Valentine, said the charges of sexual assault couldn’t be proven outside of his client’s statements to police and argued against binding them to district court. Chief Deputy District Attorney Christopher Lalli said Walker’s state of undress when she was found showed she had been sexually assaulted, which Valentine’s statements corroborated.
Lippis bound all three charges to district court.
Valentine has remained in the Clark County Detention Center without bail since his arrest. He is set to be arraigned March 23 in front of District Court Judge Jennifer Togliatti.
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