The Dateline episode “Stone-Cold” investigates the 2016 murder of Nicolas “Nick” Morelos. The 45-year-old was shot eight times including once in the middle of the forehead in his Tucson, Arizona home. Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz reports that Morelos was a “hard-charging boss” who wasn’t beloved by everyone. Police found “a complex web of bruised egos in his professional life and a trail of broken hearts in his personal life” — so the list of suspects was long. Two years after his murder, a co-worker of Morelos’ at Pinal Air Park at Marana Aerospace Solutions, mechanic James LaPan, was found guilty of first-degree murder and burglary and was sentenced to life in prison.
According to the Pima County Attorney’s Office, LaPan complained about Morelos to the HR department at work and reportedly told the HR director that if they didn’t help, he had ways of taking care of things. Prosecutors say, on the night of Morelos’ death, LaPan placed a ladder up against Morelos’ house, climbed onto the roof, shot through his bedroom windows and then crawled through a broken window to continue to shoot. Dateline airs Fridays at 10 pm on NBC.
