LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A Las Vegas man was arrested after a dispute over a casino slot machine led to an alleged stabbing with a steak knife.
Mitchell Graham, 70, was taken into custody on the morning of New Year’s Eve, 2023, and is facing charges of battery and carrying a concealed machete without a permit.
According to court documents, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department patrol unit was dispatched to the Orleans casino on the 4500 block of Tropicana Avenue shortly after 9 a.m. on December 31, 2023. The officers responded to a service call regarding a battery with a deadly weapon.
A pair of officers arrived on the scene and contacted a hotel security guard outside a bathroom near the south entrance. The guard was with the suspect and he handed the officers a black cover for a knife. Police took the suspect into custody and removed a 3-4 inch steak knife with a black handle from his front right pocket.
Graham was read his Miranda rights and agreed to speak to the police. He told them he was gambling in the casino and went to use the restroom after inserting money into a slot machine. When he returned, a young, male adult was sitting in the suspect’s seat at the machine.
The suspect said he told the other man to get out of his seat and the man grabbed the cash voucher from the slot machine and tried to walk away. Graham told police that he followed him.
“Hey, you took my money,” Graham told the victim. The suspect admitted that he then “showed him his knife.”
Graham said that the other man then “turned into him” and said that he “did not know how he got stabbed.” He added that he didn’t know because the knife was in his pocket.
The suspect said he carries the knife “for protection” and told investigators that he was within arm’s reach of the victim.
Police also spoke to the victim, who stated that “he was upset because he was stabbed for no reason.” He added that nobody was near the slot machine when he approached it, and that there was only 50 cents on it before he added $20 of his own.
Investigators reported that the victim had a superficial cut on his right rib cage and blood on his hand from the wound. Police reviewed surveillance video and determined that Graham could be seen pulling something out of his right pocket, at which point the victim stood up.
“Graham is then seen making a stabbing motion with the object towards [the victim’s] torso,” the police report stated.
A witness told police that Graham threatened to punch the victim if he didn’t “stop playing his machine.” She said that the suspect stabbed the man in his lower backside.
Graham was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. He has a preliminary court hearing scheduled for January 17.
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