LAS VEGAS — A teenager awaiting a murder trial in the fatal stabbing of a Summerlin man is now facing attempted murder charges after police say he attacked two officers in jail.
Ethan Goin was 16 when was accused of fatally stabbing Vergel Guintu, 48, in the neck on Aug. 27, 2021, after leaving school and walking into the Summerlin man’s home.
Goin, now 18, was charged last week with two counts of attempted murder and three battery charges, court records show.
According to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report, Goin attacked two guards at the Clark County Detention Center on June 22, punching one man repeatedly and strangling a woman.
An inmate told police that he watched Goin get off his bed and begin “crawling and sliding on his back” toward the end of the row of beds in the jail housing unit. He then heard a scream, and saw Goin run toward a corrections officer and hit him, the report said.
Video surveillance showed Goin hiding behind a row of beds before lunging at an officer, causing the man to fall backward, according to the report.
As Goin hit the man, another officer tried to intervene. Goin then punched the other officer, who fell and appeared to hit her head on a table, the report said.
At one point during the attack, Goin circled his arms around an officer’s neck and “appeared to be choking her,” the report said. Goin was eventually pulled away by other officers.
The male officer told police that as Goin attacked him, he kept saying “I’m going to kill you,” the report said.
Goin has been undergoing competency hearings in the murder case since September, when he was ordered to be evaluated by a state psychiatrist to determine if he is able to stand trial. He was also ordered to undergo a competency evaluation in the attempted murder case.
He remained at the Clark County Detention Center on Friday without bail.
In January 2022, a pediatric endocrinologist testified that the jail was not properly managing the teenager’s diabetes, leading to dangerously high blood sugar levels.
After Goin was arrested in connection with Guintu’s killing, he told police that he did not remember what happened inside the man’s home. Deputy Public Defender Sarah Hawkins has said that Goin was previously hospitalized for “mental health issues,” and had been released from a hospital nine days before Guintu’s killing.
Goin briefly appeared in court through video on Friday, when District Judge Christy Craig set another hearing for Wednesday in the murder case.
