April 1st, 2025 - 'Til Death Do Us Part

In Nevada, a young man has been charged in the death of a man back in February.
In North Carolina, the body of a man was found floating in a pond weeks after he had gone missing. His estranged wife has since been charged for the alleged murder.
Also in Nevada, a woman has been charged in the stabbing death of a toddler.
Consider joining PLUS+ at swordandscale.com/plus

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, and welcome back to Sword and Scale Daily, a
daily show covering all things true crime, five days a week.
It's Tuesday, April first. I'm your host, Ryan Williams. In Nevada,
a young man has been charged in the death of
a man. Back in February. In North Carolina, the body

(00:22):
of a man was found floating in upon weeks after
he went missing. His estranged wife has since been charged
with the alleged murder. And also in Nevada, a woman
has been charged in the stabbing death of a toddler.
All of this coming at you right now here on
Sword and Scale Daily. During the late evening hours of Monday,

(00:49):
February seventeenth, officers with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
received a call from an unknown individual requesting medical assistance.
The caller stated that a man had consumed thirty pills
and was on responsive near the Walgreens on the sixty
eight hundred block of North Durrango. When responding officers arrived
at the scene and located the individual, they found that

(01:10):
he was not only alone, but that blood was pulling
out of his head. The victim was then taken to
UMC for emergency treatment, but was later pronounced dead. The
victim has not been named at the time of this writing,
and a later autopsy revealed that the victim actually died
from a gunshot wound to the head. Homicide investigators went
out to the scene to look for evidence and see

(01:30):
if they could find anything that pointed them to what
led to this alleged shooting. While at the scene, they
were able to recover some surveillance footage from the surrounding
areas that showed that the victim had been walking with
another person shortly before their shooting occurred. And then in
the morning hours of Tuesday, February eighteenth, a man showed
up at the crime scene and stated that he had
some information regarding the alleged shooting that had occurred the

(01:52):
evening prior. The man claimed that his son, nineteen year
old Joshua Martinez, had confessed to the alleged murder. According
to the man, at around three am, his son woke
come up and stated, quote, Dad, I think I killed someone.
The man noted that his son was drunk and wasn't
really making sense, so they agreed to talk during the

(02:13):
morning when everyone was awake and sober. But when the
man awoke and turn on the TV. The news was
airing a story about the shooting of North Durrango. Shortly thereafter,
the man asked Joshua if this was the incident that
he was talking about during those early morning hours, to
which Joshua allegedly nodded his head. Officers then traveled over

(02:33):
to the man's home, where Joshua was detained and brought
in to be questioned. While speaking with investigators, Joshua was
quite candid and is reported to have stated that he
had been having homicidal thoughts and those thoughts were exacerbated
while he was drinking during the late evening of Monday night.
Joshua admitted that he had stolen his parents debit card
and had the intention of walking to withdraw some money

(02:54):
from an ATM. When he finally made his way to
a bank ATM, he stated that he felt like a
group of hooded individuals were watching him. It was at
that time that Joshua decided to walk back home, grab
a gun and shoot the group of hooded individuals that
he saw outside of the bank. After he retrieved the firearm,
he started walking back to the bank and saw the

(03:15):
victim lying on the ground wrapped up in a blanket.
Joshua then claimed that he offered to walk the man
to the hospital to get him some help, but as
the two were walking, he allegedly just straight up and
told the victim that he wanted to murder someone. Joshua
then went on to state that the victim wasn't taken
aback by this statement, and instead allegedly admitted to setting
a man on fire a few years back. When Joshua

(03:37):
heard this, he told investigators that something quote unquote clicked
and he felt like the man he offered to help
was the one that he needed to kill. After investigator
spoke with Joshua, he was charged with an open count
of murder. As the investigation continued. In the months since
Joshua's arrest, some new details had become available, and including
a journal that was reportedly found in his room after

(03:59):
he was trying arched with murder. Inside the notebook, investigators
found information, including a pros and cons list for becoming
a serial killer. On Thursday, March twenty seventh, the Clark
County Grand jury voted to indict Joshua on a charged
murder with the use of a deadly weapon. He remains
in custody at the Clark County Detention Center without bond.

(04:21):
Joshua Martinez is due back in court on April eighteenth
for a preliminary hearing. Will continue following this story and
bring you an update if more information becomes available. Back
on Tuesday, January twenty eighth, deputies with the Cumberland County
Sheriff's Office in North Carolina responded to a home on

(04:44):
Nursey Road in Fayetteville for a requestedt welfare check. According
to the information that deputies had received, fifty year old
Clinton Bonnell, a former Green Beret, hadn't shown up for
his physician assistant class at Methodist University. The reporting party
told dispatch that his absence would uncharacteristic and they started
to believe that something was wrong. When deputies arrived at

(05:05):
Clint's home, they encountered fifty year old A Shawna Cloud
at the front door. The responding deputies told Shauna they
were there to do a welfare check on Clint. Shawna
went on to explain that she was Clint's wife and
she too hadn't seen him since the day prior. She
also thought it was odd that he hadn't returned home.
Deputies asked Shauna if she wanted to file a missing
person report for Clint, but she respectfully declined. The following day, however,

(05:30):
deputies had learned something pretty interesting. Clint had a side girlfriend,
and she, along with the officials at Methodist University, wanted
to report a missing The case was then passed along
to the Major Crimes Unit for a follow up. Two
days later, on January thirtieth, investigators traveled back out to
Clint's home on Nursey Road, armed with a warrant to
search for anything that might be related to his disappearance.

(05:54):
Inside the home, investigators found that Clint's wallet and car
keys were at the house, but not a self. Furthermore,
they learned that one of the vehicles in the driveway
was Clint's daily driver. When they searched the car, they
found his backpack with all of his school materials, including
his laptop. This in itself isn't out of the ordinary,
but after taking a closer look at the backpack and laptop,

(06:16):
investigators noted that both appeared to have been damaged by
quote unquote projectile damage, and because of this, investigators believed
that Clint may have been harmed. Unfortunately, there wasn't any
physical evidence to indicate that something happened inside the home.
The best thing that investigators could do was follow the
digital trail that Clint had left behind. Just weeks after

(06:37):
Clint was initially reported missing, investigators found out that he
was ready to file for divorce and have paper served
to Shawna. This was something that investigators needed to speak
with Shauna about. When investigators finally had the opportunity to
sit down and speak with Shauna, she admitted that she
had got into a pretty heated argument with Clint before
he went missing over a note that he had written

(06:58):
for his girlfriend. She also stated that she'd only learned
about Clint's planted divorce her the night before he went missing.
Something wasn't you know adding up here. Investigators also needed
to speak with Clint's girlfriend for more clarity on this
divorce situation. When they spoke with the girlfriend, she stated
that on January twenty seventh, Clint had texted her and

(07:20):
said he was going to an attorney's office to have
a conversation regarding on how to proceed with this divorce.
Later that day, Clint stopped by her work and they
talked about the information he had learned at the attorney's office.
After their in person conversation, Clint told his girlfriend he
was going to head over to Methodist University to get
some studying in and with texture. Later then that evening,

(07:42):
she received a text from Clint stating that he told
Sean about the divorce and that he was going to
head to bed. That was the last time that his
girlfriend had heard from him. Then, on Tuesday, February twenty fifth,
the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office received a nine to one
one call about a body that was floating in a
pond behind a home on Gainy Road. When responding deputies arrived,

(08:02):
they found not just a body, but body parts floating
in the water. It appeared as if the remains had
been in the pond for some time. They were recovered
from the water and brought to the Medical Examiner's office
for identification and an autopsy. For the family and friends
of Clint Bonnell, they were hopeful that the body found
wasn't their missing loved one, but in the event it was,

(08:23):
they would be relieved to know that he was found.
On Friday, March twenty eighth, two months to the day
that Clint was reported missing. It was announced that the
remains were in fact Clint Bonnell. The same day this
announcement was made, SHAWNA. Cloud was arrested and charged with
first degree murder and concealment of a death. After the
arrest and charges were made public, Clint's sister spoke with

(08:44):
the media and stated quote, I've known from the first
time I talked to SHAWNA on January twenty ninth, that
she did something to my brother. I'm very thankful that
he was found that shawn and Cloud was arrested. I
will continue to advocate for my brother and pray that
justice has served. My brother was an amazing man. What
she did to him was pure evil. I'm very thankful

(09:05):
to the detectives and the entire Cumberland County Sheriff's office
for working tirelessly on my brother's case. We'll continue keeping
our eye on this story and bring you an update
when additional details become available. On Wednesday, March twenty sixth,
at around three am, a man in Las Vegas, Nevadic

(09:27):
called nine one one and stated, quote, my babysitter just
stabbed my child. While on the call with the reporting party,
the dispatcher was trying to get more information, but it
appeared as if the man was yelling at someone in
the background. The following was heard on the call quote,
my child is eving three years old? theF are you doing? No,
you get back here. What the F? What did you do? No?

(09:51):
You killed my f and child. My baby isn't breathing.
My baby just bled all over the goddamn bed. What
the F did you do? Officers with the metro Politan
Police Department, as well as paramedics where then dispatched the
apartment complex where the reporting party had called from. When
they arrived and made contact with the reporting party, he
brought them inside to where his child was lying on

(10:11):
a bed. Paramedics were able to swiftly grab the child
and rush them to a local area hospital for emergency treatment. Unfortunately,
the young child did not survive. She was later identified
as three year old Journey Ross. When homicide investigators took
over the case and went to the apartment, they started
by speaking with Jerney's father, Jeremy. According to Jeremy, he

(10:33):
had been at work during the evening hours of Tuesday,
March twenty fifth. He got off on his usual time
around three am and began driving to his home. For Jeremy,
it was just another routine day, except when he walked
into the front door of his home, he saw his
on again, off again girlfriend, forty one year old Marquetta Phillips,
covered in blood. Knowing that Marketta was responsible for watching Journey,

(10:55):
Jeremy immediately pushed past her to get to his daughter's room.
When he turned off the light, he saw that Journey's
bed was bloody, and that's when he saw the damage
that had been done to his young daughter. Immediately, Jeremy
called nine to one one to get help. Jeremy then
told investigators that after he called nine one one, Marquetta
had run from the apartment and he had no damn

(11:16):
clue where she went. As far as he knew, the
apartment where the incident happened is the only place that
Marquetta called home. Luckily, investigators were able to quickly locate
the alleged suspect and get her into custody. On Thursday,
March twenty seventh, Marquetta Phillips appeared in a Clark County
courtroom where she was formally arraigned on an open count
of murder. She's been ordered to be held in custody

(11:38):
without bail ahead of trial. After the hearing, Jeremy Ross
spoke with the media outside of the courthouse. He went
on to state quote, she was just doing her thing.
I was doing my thing. I was trying to help
her because she wanted to help with her music career.
I wish I had never met this woman. I wish
I had just left her alone. A motive for the
alleged slang is still not known. If new information becomes available,

(12:01):
we'll be sure to bring you an update. Thanks so
much for tuning in for today's episode of Sword and
Scale Daily. I'm your host, Ryan Williams, and we'll see
you back here tomorrow