A Clark County jury on Thursday found a man guilty of first degree murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder for the death of a man whose body was dismembered and found in a barrel.
Ryan Bentley, 45, was indicted in January 2023. Investigators accused him of killing 39-year-old Rene Olmos Enriquez Jr. in October 2022, weeks before him remains were discovered.
According to an arrest report, a friend of Bentley told police Bentley said he lured Enriquez to his home by promising a “care package” of drugs.
Bentley and other men told Enriquez they’d kill him because they believed he was a snitch, police said previously. Bentley’s friend told investigators Enriquez took the drugs and passed out and that Bentley said he shot Enriquez after Enriquez woke up and tried to flee.
In closing arguments, Chief Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Portz said Bentley made a video “bragging about what he did” and asked people for tools to dismember the body.
Grand jury transcripts said Bentley wrote in Facebook messages that he needed a drum and “hot water to activate the lye.”
In a video Portz played in court, Bentley kicked Enriquez’s head and said, “Snitch,” according to the prosecutor.
Bentley hated Enriquez because he thought he was a snitch, but that wasn’t true, Portz said.
“The injury is the murder,” he told the jury. “The insult is dismembering the body.”
Defense attorney David Schieck said Bentley “accepts responsibility for the post mortem conduct” and called Bentley’s behavior in video footage “atrocious.”
Schieck raised questions about the involvement of others in Enriquez’s death in his closing argument.
Bentley “was set up to be the fall guy in this case by those individuals that we didn’t hear from,” he said.
He added: “Ryan was left holding the bag as the sacrificial lamb.”
Bentley’s sentencing is scheduled for April 24.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.
