Police records trace the case from a Canosa Avenue emergency call to Jose Galan-Preval’s surrender and eventual second-degree murder plea.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The criminal case that began with a 12:56 p.m. report of a stabbing at a Las Vegas home ended months later with Jose Galan-Preval sentenced to 14 to 35 years in prison for killing his girlfriend, Yaimara Leyva-Cadet, after other occupants of the house intervened and tried to save her.
The chronology documented by police provides the clearest account of how the Jan. 23 killing unfolded and how Galan-Preval was captured. Officers responding to the 1800 block of Canosa Avenue found Leyva-Cadet critically injured in the living room. While emergency workers were treating her and detectives were beginning to question residents, Galan-Preval was no longer at the home. A second call soon came into dispatch from Galan-Preval himself. Police used information from his phone to locate him in a desert area east of the city after he indicated that he might harm himself. He surrendered, was arrested for open murder with a deadly weapon and later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon.
The first minutes of the police response were focused on Leyva-Cadet. According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and an arrest report later obtained by KTNV, officers found her with multiple apparent stab wounds. She was moved outside the residence for medical treatment and transported to Sunrise Hospital. She was pronounced dead later that day. Police did not publicly identify her in their initial Jan. 24 release, referring questions about the decedent’s identity and cause and manner of death to the Clark County coroner. Later reporting identified her as Leyva-Cadet and tied her death to the homicide prosecution against Galan-Preval.
Investigators then turned to the people who had been inside the Canosa Avenue residence. Galan-Preval and Leyva-Cadet rented a room from a family living there, according to the arrest report. A woman in the home told detectives that she was in the living room with the couple when Galan-Preval asked Leyva-Cadet to make rice. Leyva-Cadet appeared not to want to do so. The witness said Galan-Preval left the area briefly and then returned before attacking Leyva-Cadet with a knife. The report did not describe the request for rice as a legal justification or defense. It was one detail in the witness account of events immediately before the homicide.
The attack drew other residents into the room. The homeowner’s son told police he heard his mother calling for help and ran into the living room. He said he saw Galan-Preval holding a knife and Leyva-Cadet injured. The son and his father disarmed Galan-Preval and attempted to help Leyva-Cadet. Their intervention ended Galan-Preval’s possession of the weapon, according to the police account, but Leyva-Cadet’s injuries proved fatal. The son told investigators that Galan-Preval then escaped through a rear sliding door and left in a black Dodge Durango registered to Leyva-Cadet.
As he left, Galan-Preval made a statement accepting responsibility, the homeowner told police. That statement became notable later because it fit a broader pattern described by both the prosecution record and the defense at sentencing: Galan-Preval did not maintain that someone else had attacked Leyva-Cadet. Instead, after leaving the scene, he contacted authorities. Police said he called dispatch while officers were still working at the residence. Because he reportedly threatened to harm himself, authorities initiated an emergency location effort involving his cellphone and tracked him to a desert area east of Hollywood Boulevard and Vegas Valley Drive.
Galan-Preval surrendered when officers reached him. The police department said he was taken into custody without incident. During an interview with detectives, he discussed the couple’s background and relationship. He said he and Leyva-Cadet had come to the United States from Cuba and were renting a room in the Canosa Avenue house. He described Leyva-Cadet as jealous and said she had accused him of being unfaithful. According to the arrest report, he told police that the night before the stabbing she had wanted to inspect his phone because she suspected infidelity. Those descriptions were his account to investigators and were not independent findings that shifted responsibility away from him.
The report says Galan-Preval told investigators that he made breakfast for himself and Leyva-Cadet the following morning. He later retrieved a knife from the kitchen and stabbed her after, in his words as summarized by police, losing control of his emotions. That admission was consistent with the central conclusion police announced the day after the killing: detectives believed Galan-Preval stabbed his girlfriend during an argument. The initial open-murder arrest left prosecutors room to determine the appropriate final charge as the investigation and court proceedings continued.
Months later, the case was resolved without a trial. Galan-Preval entered a guilty plea to second-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon. The plea carried an agreed sentence of 10 to 25 years for the murder conviction, according to reporting on the July sentencing hearing. The remaining dispute concerned how much additional prison time should be imposed for use of the weapon. Prosecutors asked District Judge Jacqueline Bluth to add 20 years. Bluth instead imposed a consecutive enhancement of four to 10 years, producing a combined sentence of 14 to 35 years.
The sentencing hearing brought in details that had not been central to the first police release. Public defender Jin Kim-Steadman said Galan-Preval and Leyva-Cadet had both left Cuba in search of a better life but experienced strain after settling in the United States. The attorney said Galan-Preval was working and Leyva-Cadet was not and described arguments over employment and suspicions of infidelity. Kim-Steadman also said Galan-Preval had been drinking before the killing and characterized the attack as an abrupt loss of control. Those points were advocacy offered for the defendant at sentencing, not findings that Leyva-Cadet bore responsibility for her death.
Bluth said she considered factors that favored a punishment below the additional 20 years requested by prosecutors. Galan-Preval had taken responsibility, repeatedly expressed remorse and had no criminal history, according to the court’s discussion reported after the hearing. At the same time, the judge emphasized the seriousness of the killing. Galan-Preval also addressed the court through a Spanish interpreter, asking for forgiveness and saying he wished he had been in Leyva-Cadet’s place. His statement came after his guilty plea, so the hearing concerned punishment rather than guilt.
Viewed from the original police response, the legal resolution marked a substantial narrowing of what had initially been an open homicide investigation. On Jan. 24, police said the homicide section was still investigating and asked anyone with information to contact detectives. Galan-Preval remained the identified suspect, and the precise final charge had not yet been settled. By July, he had formally admitted second-degree murder, prosecutors no longer needed to prove the case to a jury, and the remaining decision for the court was the length of his prison term.
The sequence also makes clear that the widely reported dispute over rice was only one element of the record. Police accounts describe a request in the living room, a brief departure by Galan-Preval, his return with a knife, the intervention of other residents, his flight and his later surrender. Defense lawyers later placed that sequence within a larger account of financial stress and relationship conflict. Neither the disagreement over food nor the broader tensions altered Galan-Preval’s legal responsibility after he pleaded guilty to killing Leyva-Cadet.
Galan-Preval is now subject to the sentence imposed by Bluth: a minimum of 14 years and a maximum of 35 years for the second-degree murder conviction and deadly-weapon enhancement. The plea ended the need for a homicide trial, making the January police investigation, the defendant’s admission and the July sentencing the principal public milestones in the case.
Author note: Last updated August 22, 2026.