A Las Vegas woman is in custody and accused of stabbing a three-year-old girl she was babysitting to death. Just weeks earlier, the suspect, 41, was put on a mental health hold, according to a report.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they received the call from the victim’s father just after 3:30 a.m. on March 26. The panicked father told the dispatcher that the “babysitter had just stabbed his child.”
The victim was found “suffering from multiple stab wounds” at the Villa Del Sol Apartments, minutes from the strip. The attack occurred when the victim’s father was at work, officials said.
The suspect has been named as Marketta Phillips. She is being held on open murder charges, records show.
A week before the incident, police responded to the same residence where the toddler was killed and put Phillips on a 72-hour mental health crisis hold known as a Legal 2000, sources told FOX5.
Phillips was previously arrested in October of 2021 and charged with engaging in lewd conduct in a public place, court records show, according to a local NBC affiliate. She was ultimately issued a warning and the case was dismissed.
After stabbing the young girl on Wednesday, the dad told police that the suspect fled the scene on foot.
Police scoured the area and found Phillips, who was then taken into custody. She was being held at the Clark County Detention Center and scheduled to make her first court appearance Thursday morning.
The father's relationship with the babysitter was not immediately clear, though police said it “seems like” she may have lived with the family.
“This is an isolated incident,” Homicide Lieutenant Robert Price told reporters. “It’s just a very tragic and unfortunate incident.”
The little girl’s death has rocked the local community, and a woman alleging to be the victim’s aunt told FOX5 that the family is doing “horribly.”
“Our heart goes out to the family, I just can’t imagine what they’re going through right now. I really can’t,” neighbor Jennifer Elola added. “It has rocked us here as a family because we do have grandchildren, we have granddaughters.”
First responders transported the girl to the Sunrise Hospital in the community of Winchester, where she was ultimately pronounced dead. The victim’s identity is set to be released by the Clark County Coroner's Office.
