Suspect in downtown Las Vegas stabbing appears in court

Ulysses S. Grant appeared in a Las Vegas courtroom Tuesday morning, wearing a blue Clark County Detention Center uniform.

This Grant was not the general and president who’s been dead since 1885, but a 76-year-old man who shares the more famous Grant’s name and faces burglary and open murder charges in connection with the stabbing death of a man in a downtown Las Vegas apartment last Wednesday.

During a brief hearing before Justice of the Peace Nadia Wood, Grant, who seemed to have trouble hearing, said he hadn’t yet received the criminal complaint. Wood, who yelled so that he could hear her, said he held it in his hand. He eventually confirmed that he had it.

Wood appointed the special public defender’s office to represent Grant.

The Metropolitan Police Department said it responded to a report of a stabbing on the 100 block of North 9th Street at about 10:18 p.m. There they found Marcus Johnson suffering from an injury to his upper torso. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Las Vegas Justice Court concealed the exact address in a report provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but the Dragon Motel is in that block.

Grant said he was sorry for what he did and that he “whooped his (expletive),” but didn’t mean to kill him, according to an arrest report. He also yelled, “I cut the (expletive) up!” Metro said.

Police said surveillance video shows Grant entering Johnson’s unit and leaving a minute later with a knife in his hand.

Another neighbor pointed a pellet gun at Grant’s unit to try to keep him on the scene until police arrived, the report said.

Police said Grant had recently moved into the building.

On October 15, he and Johnson had been drinking beer together in front of the building, according to Metro. Johnson said he wanted to get drugs to smoke, which Grant refused, police said.

Eventually, the report said, Johnson left with a woman. When he returned, he accused Grant of drinking his beer and said he was a gang member, according to Metro.

Grant left the scene on a bus, but when he got back, he could hear loud music coming from Johnson’s room, police said, and confronted Johnson.

Grant told police that Johnson said something that made him “(e)xplode,” according to the report. Grant got a knife from his room, police said, then went back to Johnson’s unit.

Metro said Grant couldn’t remember how he cut or stabbed Johnson. “Ulysses said he didn’t want to hurt Marcus and was sorry he killed him,” said police.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.