UPDATE: Grisly New Details in Escort Murder at Palms in Vegas

Posted on: July 1, 2024, 08:00h. 

Last updated on: July 2, 2024, 09:02h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

UPDATE: The name of the escort attacked in her Palms hotel room on June 12 has been released, as well as grisly deals about the crime, which Las Vegas police are now investigating as a murder.

The Palms Casino Resort is owned by the Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which purchased it from Red Rock Resorts, the parent company of Station Casinos, in 2021. It was opened by the Maloof family in 2001. (Image: Trip Advisor)

Police told KLAS-TV/Las Vegas that Larissa Garcia worked as an escort in the area, going under the names “Andrea” and “Dallas.” She was a mother of two children who was attending school to better her life.

On June 12, Jason Kendall, 35, dialed 911, claiming that Garcia was overdosing inside the room. Palms security rushed to the room first to find Garcia on the floor with a lacerated jaw. She was taken to Spring Valley Hospital, where doctors found no trace of alcohol or drugs in her system, but a nurse noted that she had been “possibly suffocated.”

Kendall confessed to paying Garcia $2,000 before strangling and assaulting her, according to the police report. When she requested more money, Kendall said that he “snapped.”

“He hit her in the face and choked her for 10 minutes,” the report read, and “then had had sex with her.”

Kendall is reportedly an Army veteran, though it is not known if he was ever deployed.

Jason Kendall. (Image: LVMPD)

EARLIER: A female escort is dead after police say she was strangled during a sexual assault in a hotel room at the Palms Casino resort in Las Vegas, according to a press release. The woman, 30, died at Spring Valley Hospital on June 21, more than a week after the June 12 incident, which police are now investigating as a homicide.

A suspect, Jason Kendall, 35, surrendered at Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Headquarters on Friday. He was booked on charges of open murder, sexual assault, and battery by strangulation to commit sexual assault.

The victim appeared on multiple escort websites and worked for a Vegas-based escort company, according to KLAS-TV/Las Vegas.

Kendall was ordered held without bail during his first court appearance on Saturday. His next court appearance is Tuesday.