A string of unprovoked killings along a busy Las Vegas corridor ends with decades in prison.
LAS VEGAS, NV – A Nevada man who carried out a series of fatal shootings along East Tropicana Avenue has been sentenced to at least 56 years in prison after admitting to killing three people in 2022, including two strangers targeted in public.
Alonzo Brown, now 22, was 18 when he began what prosecutors described as a deliberate and escalating قتل spree over six months. He accepted a plea deal late last year and was sentenced Wednesday in Clark County, where he will not be eligible for parole until 2078.
Clark County Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo described Brown’s actions in stark terms during sentencing. “He just decided he was going to become a serial killer,” DiGiacomo said, according to KLAS.
Timeline of the killings along Tropicana Avenue
The violence began in January 2022 when Brown shot and killed 24-year-old Dae-von Lane, someone he knew, as Lane walked in the 5300 block of East Tropicana Avenue. Months later, the attacks turned random.
In May, Brown killed 62-year-old Paul Viana as he waited at a bus stop. In June, 36-year-old Josue Chaparro-Montalvo was shot while walking home from a convenience store. Both men were strangers to Brown.
Surveillance footage later reviewed by investigators showed Brown following his victims before opening fire.
“What was especially disturbing as they reviewed some of the surveillance footage, they noticed that the suspect seemed to stalk the victim,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Captain Dori Koren said during a 2022 briefing. “Appeared to be a random killing, there wasn’t any apparent motive from what we can tell.”
Disturbing pattern and courtroom details
Prosecutors highlighted the calculated nature of at least one killing during sentencing. “He literally stalks the victim as the victim was waiting for a bus — and then just walks up to a stranger and executes him,” DiGiacomo said, describing Viana’s death.
Investigators at the time emphasized the randomness and lack of clear motive behind the attacks. “These murders are very disturbing,” Koren said.
Brown later told a local television station that he was struggling mentally during the time of the killings. “A normal, sane 18-year-old kid is not going to go ahead and wake up and go on a killing spree,” he said in a 2022 interview with KLAS. He also said he was “trying to figure out life.”
Court records show Brown received credit for time already served, but the sentence ensures he will spend decades behind bars before any chance at release.
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