Juan Carlos Orona remains jailed without bail in the Sept. 1 deaths of his girlfriend and her two children.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A Las Vegas man accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her two children is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Oct. 21, the next major step in a criminal case that began when police say he arrived at a department substation and reported the killings himself.

Juan Carlos Orona, 29, faces 13 felony charges stemming from the Sept. 1 deaths of Nohani Flores Osuna, 41, her 16-year-old daughter, Maiya Deleon Flores, and her 7-year-old son, Noah Morales Flores. The charges include three counts of open murder with use of a deadly weapon and 10 counts of discharging a firearm within a structure. Orona has been held without bail since his arrest. The allegations have not been proved in court, and the preliminary hearing will determine whether prosecutors have presented enough evidence for the case to continue toward trial.

The court schedule places renewed attention on a case that first reached police at about 7:10 p.m. Sept. 1. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Orona contacted authorities from the Southeast Area Command and said he had shot his girlfriend and her children. He gave officers the address of an apartment in the 5100 block of O’Bannon Drive. Patrol officers were sent both to the apartment and to the police substation, where Orona was taken into custody. Officers noticed that he had an apparent gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of what police described as a non-life-threatening injury.

At the apartment, officers found an adult woman, a teenage girl and a boy younger than 10 suffering from apparent gunshot wounds, according to the department. Medical personnel pronounced all three dead at the scene. The Clark County coroner later identified them as Flores Osuna and her children. Police said investigators recovered 10 spent 9 mm cartridge cases from inside the residence. Authorities have not publicly established how Orona suffered his own wound, which a police lieutenant described soon after the shooting as superficial.

The prosecution case also rests in part on statements investigators say Orona made after surrendering. According to an arrest report described by several Las Vegas news organizations, Orona told detectives he had been dating Flores Osuna for roughly three to six months and had helped her secure the apartment and pay rent. Earlier on Sept. 1, he said, he saw her vehicle near one belonging to an ex-boyfriend. Orona later went to the apartment and confronted her about what he believed was infidelity. The report says Flores Osuna acknowledged having a sexual relationship with the former boyfriend and made a comparison between the two men.

Orona told investigators that he then “blacked out,” according to the arrest report. He said his next clear memory was of being in a bathroom holding a Glock 9 mm handgun while Flores Osuna and the children were on the floor. Police have presented that account as Orona’s statement, not as an independently established explanation of how the shootings unfolded. His reported inability to remember the gunfire does not itself resolve what happened in the apartment, and no court has ruled on the meaning or credibility of the statement.

Investigators said Orona did not deny that he was responsible when detectives questioned him about the killings, but he said he could not recall the shooting itself. He reportedly remembered Flores Osuna and the children yelling or moving toward him during the period he described as a blackout, though police said he could provide few details. The arrest report also says Orona told detectives he had the handgun because he feared Flores Osuna’s former boyfriend might come to the apartment and hurt him. Authorities have not accused that former boyfriend of involvement in the deaths.

Orona’s relatives also became part of the early police account. According to the arrest report, his father told detectives that Orona contacted family members after the confrontation and admitted that he had hurt Flores Osuna and her children. His father said Orona had described losing control and that he told his son he needed to surrender and be held accountable. Reports from the case say Orona’s father and brother then drove him to the Southeast Area Command. Police said no one from the apartment had called authorities before Orona reported the shooting.

The legal proceedings began within days. During a Sept. 3 appearance, Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum found probable cause for Orona’s arrest and ordered that he remain held without bail. Family members of the victims were present in court but did not speak publicly about the case. Six days later, Orona appeared before Justice of the Peace Amy Wilson. Wilson told him that the case involved extremely serious allegations and emphasized both the loss suffered by the victims’ relatives and Orona’s right to the constitutional protections afforded to defendants.

At the Sept. 9 hearing, the court addressed Orona’s representation. He told the judge he could not afford to hire a private attorney, and Wilson appointed Anna Clark of the Clark County public defender’s office. Clark declined to comment to the Las Vegas Review-Journal after the hearing. Orona’s next scheduled preliminary hearing is significant because Nevada prosecutors will be expected to establish probable cause for the felony charges before the prosecution advances. The hearing is not a trial, and it will not determine guilt or innocence.

The victims’ identities have meanwhile given the case a human dimension beyond the charge sheet. Flores Osuna was 41. Maiya was 16 and attended Bonanza High School, according to the Clark County School District. Noah was 7. Local reports said the family had lived at the apartment complex only a few months. Relatives attended at least one of Orona’s early court appearances but declined to give interviews, leaving much of what has become public about the case to police statements, court proceedings and the arrest report.

Police characterized the deaths from the beginning as connected to a domestic dispute and said investigators believed the incident was isolated, with no continuing danger to the public. Lt. Robert Price, speaking near the scene the night of the killings, said domestic violence is a recurring factor in homicide investigations. Detectives continued seeking information from anyone familiar with the family or the events surrounding the shooting. Authorities have not publicly released a minute-by-minute reconstruction showing exactly how the encounter inside the apartment developed before the shots were fired.

When Orona returns to court Oct. 21, the proceeding will shift the case from its initial charging stage to a review of the evidence prosecutors say supports the felony counts. The preliminary hearing will not decide guilt or innocence, but it could determine whether the murder case advances toward further proceedings in district court. Orona remains jailed without bail while awaiting that hearing.

Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.