James Beach, 28, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to killing a man with a single punch outside a downtown Las Vegas bar this past spring
A 28-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to killing a California man with a single punch outside a downtown Las Vegas bar.
James Michael Beach remained jailed on $350,000 bail following his arraignment Tuesday on murder and intimidating a witness charges.
Beach’s lawyer, Greg Knapp, says he wants to check medical records to see whether other conditions contributed to 45-year-old Luis Campos’ death.
Prosecutors say surveillance video appears to show the April 30 punch was unprovoked.
A second man seen on surveillance video after the attack was interviewed and released.
Campos, a father of five from La Puente, California, was in Las Vegas for a bachelor party.
He never regained consciousness after falling to the sidewalk. He died at a hospital four days later.
Luis Campos, a married father-of-five, was killed with a single punch to the face in Las Vegas on April 30, as he was celebrating his brother’s upcoming wedding
Campos, 45, was waiting for his younger brother to enter Vanguard Lounge on April 30 when two men came up to him and one of them punched him without any provocation
Las Vegas police released this surveillance video on YouTube showing the suspects running away after the confrontation with Campos. They believed one of the men was Beach
The judge set trial to start Oct. 2.
Campos was set to be best man at his brother’s wedding.
The altercation that left Campos dead took place in the early morning hours outside a nightclub in the 500 block of the iconic Fremont Street, where Campos was enjoying a night out with his younger brother.
Police responded to the scene at 1.30am after getting reports of a fight and found Campos lying unconscious on the sidewalk with what appeared to be a life-threatening head injury.
This is said to be the last photo showing Campos (far right) before the attack, enjoying a meal with his brother and friends
Joyce Garibay, Campos’ mother (pictured right in the hospital), rushed to her son’s bedside after the attack and was able to bid him goodbye
The victim was taken to UMC Trauma Center, where he succumbed to his injuries on May 4.
According to a statement from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Campos had been standing in line with his brother to enter a nightclub when he was approached by two men.
‘A brief verbal altercation occurred, one of the suspects punched the victim, and both suspects fled the scene on foot,’ the press release from the police stated.
Speaking to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, one of Campos’ siblings, Drake Garibay, shed light on the circumstances surrounding the chance encounter that resulted in his brother’s death.
Garibay said he and Campos had been drinking on that fateful night but were not drunk when they got in line to enter Vanguard Lounge.
The pair were in town for their sibling’s bachelor party ahead of his wedding, in which Campos was supposed to be the best man.
The pair were standing quietly next to a wall when two strangers walked up to Campos, according to Garibay, and the taller of the pair confronted the father-of-five, telling him something to the effect of, ‘What are you looking at?’ ‘
Garibay, 30, said a second later, the man sucker-punched his brother in the face, causing him to collapse unconscious to the ground amidst a dense crowd of revelers.
Patriarch: Campos’ two children, aged one and two, will never get to know their father (second from right). His three oldest children are in their teens
Police arrested Beach and say the second man from this surveillance tape has been interviewed and is no longer being sought
‘He didn’t even get a chance to say anything,’ Garibay told the Review-Journal.
‘It wasn’t even like they squared up. My brother turned his head, he didn’t say one word, and [the stranger] struck him.’
The siblings’ mother, Joyce Garibay, told the station Las Vegas Now that when she got the tragic news, she jumped in her car and drove six agonizing hours from her home in California to Las Vegas so she could say goodbye to her son.
She said Campos’ two youngest children, aged one and two, will never get to know their father. His three oldest children are in their teens.
Campos’ family have set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the dead father’s children.
Las Vegas police released a surveillance video on YouTube showing the suspects in the deadly attack running away after the confrontation with Campos.
One of the men in the CCTV footage is seen wearing a white cap, white pants and dark shirt, and the other is dressed in a dark shirt and tan pants.
The suspects ran east on Fremont Street and then turned north on 6th Street.
Now police say that one of the men in the surveillance tape is Beach.
The other man has been interviewed by cops and is no longer being sought, police said.
The arrest of Beach was a victory for the family, he said.
‘We got a big win today,’ Garibay said. ‘It doesn’t bring my brother back, but it’s good to know they got him.’