Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast - The Halloween Murder of Tony Bagley

Episode Date: November 5, 2024

Tony Bagley was a typical 7-year-old in Las Vegas hoping to get a great haul of candy on Halloween in 1994. Dressed as a Skeleton, he walked through the streets of North Las Vegas trick-or-treating with his familyWhat happened next would shock the Las Vegas Community as a hail of bullets was fired at the family. But why? And by whom?https://sinspod.co/51sourcesDomestic Violence Resourceshttp://sinspod.co/resourcesClick here to become a member of our Patreon!https://sinspod.co/patreonVisit and join our Patreon now and access our ad-free episodes and exclusive bonus content & schwag! Get ad-free access for only $1 a month or ad-free and bonus episodes for $3 a monthApple Podcast Subscriptionshttps://sinspod.co/appleWe're now offering premium membership benefits on Apple Podcast Subscriptions! On your mobile deviceLet us know what you think about the episodehttps://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/2248640/open_sms Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sins-survivors-a-las-vegas-true-crime-podcast--6173686/support.

To listen ad-free, visit Zinspod.co slash subscribe. Starting at $2.99 a month, you'll also get access to our exclusive bonus content episodes when you join through Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Thanks for supporting the show! Tony Bagley was a typical 7-year-old here in Las Vegas, hoping to get a great haul of candy on Halloween in 1994. Dressed as a skeleton, he walked through the streets of North Las Vegas, trick-or-treating with his family. What happened next would shock the Las Vegas community as a

hail of bullets was fired at the family. But why and by whom? Hi and welcome to Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast, where we focus on cases that deal with domestic violence, as well as missing persons and unsolved cases. I'm your host, Sean. And with me, as always, is the one and only John. I am the only John in the room. We recently dropped a flashback episode about Samari Norris Johnson, a young man who was murdered in an incident of gun violence on Halloween 2023 a year ago. There's another murder case that we'd like to share today that also happened on Halloween.

Gun violence on Halloween here in Las Vegas is unfortunately not very rare, and this case has been open for three decades now, unsolved, cold, with a family still waiting on answers. This is considered one of Las Vegas' most notorious unsolved murders. By talking about it, we hope to raise awareness and hopefully prompt someone to finally come forward who might know something about it. Do you want to tell us about Tony? Of course. Tony was born on September 6th, 1987, making him seven years old in 1994, his mom was Lachelle Cooper and his dad was Anthony Bagley Sr. He had three siblings, a sister who was three years older named Chanel, a younger brother, and also a younger sister. Reporting also mentions a young cousin, but most of the time, the Las Vegas Review-Journal kept the names of the kids out of the press. Much of the documentation we found about this comes from the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper

archives from 30 years ago, which have been digitized into a searchable database, and we wanted to note that there's a lot of coverage of this in that archive from that time period. Also of note, Tony kind of shared his name with his father, but he wasn't a junior. Anthony Bagley Sr. also had an older child who was Anthony Bagley Jr., who was older than Tony, which made the research a little bit confusing in places. Tony was in second grade at H.P. Fitzgerald Elementary School on Reserve Street in North Las Vegas. That school is still there with the same name. He was an active kid playing baseball, football, and of course,

it was 1994, so he loved, football, and of course, it was 1994, so he loved his Nintendo, and who didn't? As we said, he chose his costume for Halloween, a skeleton, and headed out trick-or-treating in his neighborhood with his mom, his aunt, his two sisters, his little brother, his cousin, and his aunt's boyfriend, just like thousands of other kids did that night, expecting a great candy haul, a night of fun, and maybe a bit of a stomach ache the next day. They were near Engelstadt Street and Veronica Avenue in North Las Vegas, just four blocks from their home, and they noticed someone lingering on the side of the road. Initially, they didn't think much of it. He waited for a group of trick-or-treaters to pass the group, and then he ran at them. Tony's mom thought he might be trying to steal their candy, He was wearing a black hoodie zipped up so they couldn't see his face, and he fired no less than 10 rounds with a handgun, then got into the passenger seat of a getaway car that was also lurking nearby

with its headlights off, just waiting. The car was described as a light-colored sedan. It could have been a Ford Taurus or a Chevy Celebrity or other similar looking car. Tony's sister was shot in the stomach, and his aunt was hit in the leg, and his mother was hit in the arm and the chest. The bullet that hit his mom's arm passed right through it and then hit Tony in the leg, and his mother was hit in the arm and the chest. The bullet that hit his mom's arm passed right through it and then hit Tony in the head. He fell into his aunt's arms, and his last word was, Mommy. He died the next day at UMC Trauma. Everyone else in the group survived. His sister was treated in the pediatric intensive care unit and was in the hospital for eight days, undergoing surgery to remove part of her liver to save her life.

When Chanel was released from UMC, her friends came to her house to watch movies and surrounded her with love and support. A reporter was there to interview her. Before the reporter could even get out the words, Chanel knew what was coming and anticipated the question. She said without hesitation, What do I think about him? When I think about it, I think, why did he do it and how did he know us? I think he needs to see his counselor, because that shows how bad you feel about yourself. If you feel good about yourself, you wouldn't be doing that.

Before we get back to the investigation into Tony's death, I want to note just a few months after the shooting, Chanel nearly drowned in a North Las Vegas city pool in July of 1995. She was again hospitalized in critical condition following the accident. She was released from UMC several days later. What an absolutely horrific year for this family. The investigation was led by the North Las Vegas police, of course. Remember that North Las Vegas is a different city than Las Vegas and has its own police force separate from Metro. On the day following the shooting, the North Las Vegas police questioned at least 11 people.

Officer Mike Higgins said that he questioned a 27-year-old man who was suspected of being the shooter and murderer, but he denied any involvement and had to be released the next day because of a lack of evidence. They suspected him because his name had been reported to them by several nearby residents, and other inmates in the jail had said he'd been making comments linking himself to the crime, but it turned out there wasn't any actual evidence connecting him to Tony's shooting. Police also believed that the shooter was aiming at one or more of the adults for some reason, and that Tony and his sister were collateral damage. There was a reward offered for information leading to the arrest of the murderer, first by State Senator Joe Newell and State Assemblyman Morse Arbery, who each pledged $500 for a reward, followed by

First Interstate Bank, who added $1,500 to the reward. The reward would continue to climb and climb as the Vegas community came together around Tony's family. The investigation quickly hit a brick wall. There was no motive that could be determined that would make someone target Tony's mom and aunt, though there were some theories about gang activity, that it might have been potentially motivated by a drug deal or that the shooter may have had a prior relationship with one of the women. There were over two dozen people in the area at the time of the shooting,

but police said there was some fear about coming forward, making them think that the suspect might have lived in the area, and people could have been concerned for their safety if they had helped the police. Two weeks after the shooting, a reenactment was aired on TV to try and generate leads, but it went absolutely nowhere. A year later, reporters interviewed the detectives and family, hoping to generate more interest in the case. The police said they hadn't had any new leads in nine months. They showed reporters a thick binder containing all the leads they'd

followed up on, but none of them got them any closer to catching the killer. Tony's funeral was held on November 4, 1994, at Bunkers Mortuary. More than 200 people were in attendance and the memorial was decorated with balloons, blue and white carnations, and a brown teddy bear. During the memorial, Reverend Sylvester Rogers pleaded with the murderer to do the right thing and come forward. Unfortunately, it got worse for the family. At that time, his mother was in computer school and didn't have health insurance. And his father, Anthony, was required by the court to carry health insurance for the children, but he didn't. The ambulance ride alone cost over $1,500, which is $3,200 in 2024 dollars. A local radio station raised $20,000 for the family's medical

bills, but that's something that can bankrupt a family in very short order. A year later, Bob Stupak, a well-known local gambler and developer casino owner, who's actually the visionary behind the original Stratosphere and the theme park rides on top, offered a $100,000 reward, that's $213,000 in 2024, for tips leading to the arrest of Tony's murderer. We found some footage of Stupak in the UNLV archives and we will share that on our social media. Stupak declared that he knew the reward had to be big enough to get someone's brother or even their own mother to turn them in. He did it in a very P.T. Barnum like fashion,

holding a press conference and dumping out $100,000 in cash from a brown paper bag onto a table for the press to see. He said, I don't want this money. I want this money to go away. Unfortunately, even that did not lead to any new tips. Sadly, on Halloween 1995, there was another tragedy in Las Vegas. 12-year-old Rupert Wright was accidentally shot and killed that night when a 20-year-old young man took out a gun to show to the kids in the neighborhood. No charges were filed as police determined it was an accident. Rupert was a funny and well-liked 7th grader who loved to draw and make model cars. But both of these incidents made Las Vegas residents concerned about the safety for their children on Halloween.

Tony's mom told the RJ that even years later, she was living in fear, even being afraid to be out of her house, especially after dark. She was quoted as saying, what do we do to make someone hate us enough to want to take all of our lives? Just one year after the murder, she sadly predicted that the case would go cold and never be solved. We've seen in some cases we've covered that the police don't seem to fully investigate them, but this isn't an example of one of those. The police and local community really seemed intent on finding who killed Tony. Thousands and thousands of dollars were raised both to help the family and to fund a large reward to catch the person

responsible. The multiple articles we found in the Review Journal archives paint a picture of a distressed community frightened and frustrated that no one had been arrested for their horrific shooting. In Halloween of 1995, the North Las Vegas community planned a safe trick-or-treating event for the community to give everyone a sense of security and safety. A local Muslim group met with the police and planned to canvas the neighborhood to ask questions, and police even tried getting help from a psychic. America's Most Wanted covered the case in 1996 as well, but again, there was nothing. At Christmas time in 1994, Tony's family set up a small tree at his gravesite with small gifts, decorating it with teddy bears,

angels, and Santa Claus. They had apparently already bought his gifts for Christmas, including a Super Nintendo and some Hot Wheels cars, which he loved. It must have been a horrible nightmare of a Christmas for them. Tony's grandma told reporters, I usually put my wish list on the refrigerator, but this year, I just want the person who did this to my family to be caught.

The year after, they vowed they wouldn't celebrate Halloween again. As a reminder, the shooter was described, not very helpfully, as a 20-year-old black man, around 5'8", and between 165 and 180 pounds. He would be around 50 years old today. A bit more about Tony's dad, Anthony. He was arrested on April 8th, 1998, for the murder of a man named Curtis Henry, who apparently owed him $1,000 from eight years earlier. Anthony approached Curtis and demanded the money, and then in the argument that followed, Curtis was shot. It's reported that he stumbled to a home very nearby and collapsed and died at the scene. Anthony was charged, and after a brief trial, he was convicted of first-degree murder with the use

of a deadly weapon. He was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 20 years, and also a second life sentence for a deadly weapon enhancement. It's interesting to note that Nevada changed the law in 2007 to adjust the deadly weapon enhancement to be 8 to 20 years. The law didn't apply retroactively, though. After 20 years, Anthony was granted parole for the first-degree murder in 2018. However, it was expected that he would need to serve the second life sentence for the deadly weapon enhancement as well. His advocates set up a petition and campaigned to have Anthony released. They argued that it was fundamentally unfair that Anthony be forced to serve a second life term.

The Board of Pardons agreed with his advocates and ultimately pardoned him. So long story short, Anthony has served his time and is out of prison. Tony's godmother blames Anthony for the shooting. She said she thought that the shooting was to harm someone close to Anthony in retaliation for some drug deal that went bad, although we didn't find any concrete evidence to back up that claim. It was noted that both shootings did happen in the same neighborhood. But back to Tony. If you know someone who lived in the area at that time in the early 90s and might know something about Tony's murder, you can reach out to the North Las Vegas Police Department at 702-633-9111, or as always, you can remain anonymous by visiting crimestoppersonv.com or by calling Crimestoppers at 702-385-5555. It's long past time for this

little boy's tragic murder to be solved. He would be 37 years old today if he had lived. As we remind you every week, what happens here happens everywhere. To be continued... Remember to like and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Threads at Sins and Survivors. If you're enjoying the podcast, please leave us a review on your podcast platform of choice. You can contact us at questions at sinsandsurvivors.com. If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence or needs support, please reach out to local resources or the National Domestic Violence Hotline. A list of resources is available on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com. Sins and Survivors, a Las Vegas true crime podcast,

is research written and produced by your hosts, Sean and John. The information shared in this podcast is accurate at the time of recording. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email us. Links to source material for this episode can be found on our website, sinsandsurvivors.com.