Inset: Shiloh Leutu appearing in court (KSNV). Background: The Las Vegas food bank where Leutu assaulted a 60‑year‑old man who was protecting his girlfriend (Google Maps).
A Nevada man is set to serve time after admitting he beat a woman’s boyfriend to death while the victim tried to protect her from the attacker and another individual. According to reports, the two men were “insulting and talking badly” to the girlfriend because she didn’t have a cigarette to offer.
Shiloh Leutu received a sentence of three to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in August, court records show.
The victim, Scott Dennis, was waiting in line at a Las Vegas food bank on July 9 when the 38‑year‑old Leutu and an accomplice,who has never been arrested,asked Dennis’s girlfriend for a cigarette, according to an arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review‑Journal and KSNV.
When the woman said she didn’t smoke, Leutu and his companion allegedly began harassing and mocking her. Dennis, who had stepped out to smoke, witnessed the scene and returned to shield his girlfriend from Leutu.
Police pieced together witness statements and surveillance footage to confirm that Leutu assaulted and fatally beat Dennis outside the food bank, repeatedly striking and kicking him as he tried to rise.
“Detectives learned that the victim and a friend were in a line waiting for a business [the food bank] … to open,” a police press release said in July. “A male approached the friend and started yelling at her. The victim stepped in and the male struck him in the face causing him to fall to the ground. A second male jumped in and the two continued to beat the victim until the crowd could stop them.”
Leutu and his associate fled the scene, and detectives located Leutu and placed him under arrest on July 15.
Initially, court documents listed open murder and battery of an older person causing substantial bodily harm as charges, but the Clark County District Attorney’s Office later dropped the murder charge.
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