NV - Rita Colon charged of the murders of Edwin Colon in 2005 & former UNLV professor Leroy Pelton in 2016, *arrest 2019*

[PastTense]

A suspect in the 2016 slaying of a former UNLV professor killed the 76-year-old in order to gain access to a $1.1 million retirement fund, according to an arrest report. Leroy Pelton’s body was discovered in December 2016 when Henderson police performed a welfare check at his Henderson home, police have said. At the time, Pelton had not been seen or heard from since early November 2016, and neighbors were concerned, according to the arrest report for Rita Colon, 44, who has been awaiting extradition from Peru for more than a year. Shortly after Pelton was discovered dead, police identified Colon as a suspect in the case and submitted a warrant for her arrest on a murder charge. Colon was apprehended in Peru in December 2017, Henderson police said Wednesday.

Suspect in former UNLV professor’s death awaiting extradition from Peru

The Clark County coroner’s office no longer believes Edwin Colon, the husband of a woman accused of fatally stabbing a former UNLV professor, died by suicide nearly 14 years ago... Luis Colon has told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he believes the circumstances surrounding his brother’s death are eerily similar to how Leroy Pelton, a 76-year-old former UNLV professor, was killed in Henderson in November 2016, allegedly by 44-year-old Rita Colon. As with Edwin Colon’s case, the coroner’s office determined that Pelton died from at least one stab wound to the neck. The man also had a stab wound to his liver and defensive knife wounds on both hands.

Ruling prompts North Las Vegas police to review man’s 2005 death

 

[JerseyGirl]

Woman suspected of 2 fatal stabbings found incompetent to stand trial

 

[Rikissa]

On 10 July 2025 the case against Rita Colon for killing her husband, Edwin Colon, in 2005, was dismissed "without prejudice":

Her attorney, Joshua Tomsheck, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the case’s dismissal hinged on the specific terms of her extradition, which limited the offenses for which she could be prosecuted.

Murder case tossed against Las Vegas woman accused of killing husband

A judge dismissed one of two murder cases Thursday against a woman accused of killing her husband and then, more than a decade later, her boyfriend.

www.reviewjournal.com

She was declared to be compentent to stand trial in 2023, and the second case for the 2016 killing of Leroy Pelton still “remains” and is expected to go to trial.