LAS VEGAS —
Authorities said Friday they believe a casino worker killed a
10-year-girl several days before Christmas, then went to the Bellagio resort on the Las Vegas Strip and slashed the face of a co-worker with a pair of razor blades.
The search for Jade Morris ended Friday afternoon when officials confirmed that her body had been found Thursday in an undeveloped housing tract.
She died of multiple stab wounds, the Clark County coroner's office said.
Jade was last seen Dec. 21 with family friend Brenda Stokes Wilson, who picked her up to go Christmas shopping.
Wilson, 50, returned the car she
had borrowed for the outing to a friend two hours later. Jade never came
back. Investigators later found blood on the driver's door and steering
wheel of the 2007 Saab sedan.
Later that night, Wilson
was wrestled to the ground with razors in each hand after allegedly
slashing the face of a female co-worker at the Bellagio casino.
A judge raised her bail to
$60,000 from $600,000 Friday morning after she was identified as the
prime suspect in the child's killing.
"It's no secret the defendant is
the suspect in the murder of 10-year-old Jade Morris," prosecutor Robert
Daskas told Senior Clark County District Court Judge Joseph Bonaventure
at the hearing.
Later Friday, Las Vegas police homicide Capt. Chris Jones said investigators were still moving forward.
"As soon as we get all the evidence in that we need, we'll book her on the murder charges," he said.
Wilson has been jailed since the
21st on felony battery with a weapon, burglary and mayhem charges that
could get her decades in prison.
Police said she offered no help in the search for the missing girl.
Murder and kidnapping charges could get her life in prison without
parole or the death penalty.
On Thursday, Las Vegas
police responding to a 911 call found a girl's body in unkempt brush
near palm trees in a small traffic circle about 10 miles from the
downtown Las Vegas outlet mall where Stokes was to have taken the girl
shopping.
On Friday evening, Jones called the slaying "unfathomable."
"Even having our jobs, we still can't wrap our heads around this," he
said. "A lot of people think that just because of our positions we can
understand it, but we can't."
In court Friday morning, Wilson
stood flanked by eight police officers as her lawyer, Tony Liker,
clutching a Bible and a copy of the charging documents, asked the judge
to postpone arraignment until Wednesday to give him time to meet with
Wilson.
Wilson, who had been identified by police and prosecutors as Brenda Stokes, told the judge Friday that her full name was Brenda Stokes Wilson.
Jade's father, Philip Morris,
was removed from court Wednesday by armed court officers after shouting
questions about his daughter's whereabouts to Wilson. He did not attend
Friday's hearing.
The two dated for several years, and Jade had a long and trusting
relationship with Wilson, according to the girl's grandfather, Philip
Tucker.
Tucker said Philip Morris lived
in Billings, Mont., and worked at a Flying J truck stop for more than a
year. He would stay with Wilson when he visited Las Vegas, Tucker said.
Authorities have not disclosed a
motive for the slaying. But Tucker said Wilson appeared to believe that
the face-slashing victim had become romantically involved with Philip
Morris.
Wilson picked up Jade up for
their shopping expedition around 5 p.m. Later, she got a ride with a
friend to the Bellagio. She allegedly attacked her co-worker, Joyce
Rhone, at around 9:30 p.m.
Rhone, 44, was hospitalized with deep cuts on her face, including one from her ear to the edge of her mouth.
Wilson told investigators that
she visited her doctor last week, seeking to be admitted to a hospital
"due to feeling like she wanted to hurt someone."
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