LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Anthony Newton allegedly strangled, dismembered and dumped his victim’s body in a vacant lot before setting it on fire and walking away, Clark County prosecutors told a jury on the first day of a retrial of a death penalty murder case.

In opening statements Monday, attorneys gave conflicting versions of the events of the Christmas 2016 murder of Ulisys ‘Cesar’ Molina. Molina was found on Dolly Lane near E. Lake Mead and N. Lamb boulevards in early 2017 after his family said he was absent over the holidays. Prosecutors tried Newton in November 2024 but the judge, Jacqueline Bluth, declared a mistrial during the first day of testimony because one of Newton’s co-defendants improperly alerted the jury to a certain time Newton spent in prison. 

“So please, under no circumstances does that word come out of your mouth,” Bluth told the first few jurors who testified Monday, cautioning them to not refer to Newton’s prison time.

During that time in prison, prosecutors say, Molina slept with Newton’s then-wife. They say Newton and his brother-in-law, George Malaperdas killed Molina with the help of Kelsea Glass. Malaperdas awaits sentencing on charges of murder, robbery, and kidnapping. Court records indicate a sentencing date of February 11. Glass, whose testimony in November triggered the mistrial, also awaits sentencing on the same day for her role in the murder. Prosecutors say Glass lured Molina to her apartment, where Newton and Malaperdas were waiting for him.

“In the summer of 2015 Jami Malaperdas, the defendant’s wife, ends up having a romantic affair with Cesar Molina, the victim in the case,” Pam Weckerly, a chief deputy public defender in Clark County, said Monday. “And this relationship is known by people in Mr. Molina’s family and it’s not exactly a secret.”

But Newton’s attorneys say the police rushed to the conclusion that Newton, 45, is Molina’s killer and selectively chose evidence that fit their theory. Josh Tomsheck, who delivered the defense’s opening statement, said the state’s witnesses have reason to lie.

“I’m going to ask you why they are saying the things that they say,” Tomsheck said. “The why in this case is going to tell you the truth about what really happened.”

Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed on one set of facts surrounding the discovery of one of Molina’s hands, which were severed at the time of his murder. In April 2018, while Newton was in custody at Clark County Detention Center, a woman in Henderson sent her 5-year-old child to check the mail and found a human hand in the mailbox. Police ultimately determined it was Molina’s, but found no other leads, prosecutors said. 

“So as we sit here now, we will not be able to answer for you how that hand ended up getting into that lady’s mailbox a year later,” Weckerly said.

“Anthony Newton could have had nothing to do with that hand,” Tomsheck said. “He was nowhere near it. It was two towns away and he wasn’t in a place where he could get it. Things, ladies and gentlemen, are not always as they seem.”

Court records indicate Newton’s trial could last three weeks. If the jury – currently comprised of 14 people before it is pared down to 12 with two alternates – finds Newton guilty, Bluth will preside over a separate penalty phase of the trial during which the jury will decide whether to sentence Newton to death.



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