{"id":248068,"date":"2022-12-14T17:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T23:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=248068"},"modified":"2022-12-14T18:15:44","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T00:15:44","slug":"las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Stabbing Murder Suspect Traced Via Player Rewards Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man suspected of stabbing Las Vegas resident Marcos Rocha to death in the early hours of December 3 was traced via his player rewards card, Metro Police have said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_248069\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248069\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-248069 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings.jpg\" alt=\"Joshua Billings\" width=\"1200\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings-858x429.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings-430x215.jpg 430w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-248069\"class=\"text-description\">Joshua Billings, above, was tracked via surveillance footage and his player rewards card. He denied murdering Marcos Rocha when arrested by Metro Police last Thursday. (Image: FOX5 Vegas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Joshua Billings, 27, was arrested last Thursday\u00a0and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of open murder.<\/p>\n<p>Metro Police were called to an alley of 1300 Sombrero Drive December 3, near the intersection of South Maryland Parkway and East Desert Inn Road. There they found Rocha slumped near a dumpster with an apparent stab wound. The victim was unresponsive. Some shopping bags with groceries spilled were found around his body. His cell phone and wallet were missing.<\/p>\n<p>Police also noticed bloody footprints and droplets of blood leading away from the scene, according to Billings\u2019 arrest report.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Trail of Blood<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Investigators collated surveillance footage from three different locations close by and quickly identified a person of interest.<\/p>\n<p>This individual was seen crossing paths with Rocha near the Desert Inn and Maryland Parkway intersection shortly after midnight. The figure is next seen following Rocha as he walks through a Sunrise Hospital parking lot toward the area where the murder took place.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p><strong>Crucially, investigators also found security footage from Bert\u2019s Gaming, a nearby dive bar with video poker and keno. This appeared to show the same individual gambling at the bar at around 11.30 p.m.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The figure was identified by his player card information as Joshua Billings.<\/p>\n<p>When investigators eventually tracked Billings down at an address that did not match the one on his records, they found droplets of blood leading to the front door which matched those found at the murder scene.<\/p>\n<p>Billings was wearing a hat identical to the individual seen in the surveillance video. They found blood on the brim of the hat and a cut on his right index finger.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Denies Murder<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to his arrest report, Billings agreed to be taken to Metro Police headquarters to be interviewed. He admitted he was in the area at the time and confirmed he was the person in the images. But he denied stabbing anyone. He told investigators he was drunk that night.<\/p>\n<p>The victim\u2019s mother, Martha Santos, told 8NewsNow last week that her son was \u201cjust a good kid with a good heart,\u201d who \u201chelped everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was always trying to get everybody to start dancing,\u201d\u00a0she said, adding that she was struggling to understand why anyone would want to hurt him.<\/p>\n<p>Billings is scheduled to appear in court for a bail hearing December 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man suspected of stabbing Las Vegas resident Marcos Rocha to death in the early hours of December 3 was traced via his player rewards card, Metro Police have said. Joshua Billings, 27, was arrested last Thursday\u00a0and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a charge of open murder. Metro Police were called to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":248069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886,60],"tags":[84124,23,84123,82002],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Las Vegas Stabbing Murder Suspect Traced Via Player Rewards Card<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Joshua Billings is suspected of murdering Marcos Rocha in Las Vegas on December 3. He was traced by his Bert\u2019s Gaming rewards card.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Las Vegas Stabbing Murder Suspect Traced Via Player Rewards Card\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joshua Billings is suspected of murdering Marcos Rocha in Las Vegas on December 3. He was traced by his Bert\u2019s Gaming rewards card.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T23:11:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-15T00:15:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/\",\"name\":\"Las Vegas Stabbing Murder Suspect Traced Via Player Rewards Card\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Billings.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-14T23:11:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-15T00:15:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Joshua Billings is suspected of murdering Marcos Rocha in Las Vegas on December 3. 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(Image: FOX5 Vegas)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-stabbing-murder-suspect-traced-via-player-rewards-card\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Las Vegas Stabbing Murder Suspect Traced Via Player Rewards Card"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. 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