LAS VEGAS -- Police have made an arrest in a cold case murder that happened 26 years ago at a downtown motel parking lot.
Metro arrested 51-year-old George Lawson on April 18th at his Las Vegas home. Police say Lawson admitted to the shooting 60-year-old Ismale Ceballos on December 20, 1983. The two men did not know each other.
"Someone was leaning on someone's vehicle, he said 'hey move, get out of the way,' they got into a verbal argument and then he shot him," said Lt. George Castro, Metro.
Lt. Castro says Lawson has a violent criminal history but only minor offenses in the past 20 years.
Fingerprint technology funded by a $1.9 million federal grant is credited with Lawson's capture. "We were able to discover a fingerprint that maybe we did not have the technology back then to process because maybe it wasn't as sensitive as it is today," said Lt. Castro.
Metro says the victim's wife who had given up on ever finding who killed her husband was overwhelmed by the new development.
"You could see the emotion taking over her body, she was starting to cry because it finally did hit her that it was solved," said Lt. Castro.
This is the eighth cold case crime that Metro has solved since 2006.
