Las Vegas unsolved murder #5: A front store for underage prostitution in the heart of Chinatown

Top Notch Apparel, now Gold Rush Smoke Smoke Shop 3, 3929 Spring Mountain Road, Las Vegas, through at least 2017 doubled as an unlicensed strip club at night featuring underage female prostitutes, most of whom either attended or were recent alumni of local Centennial High School. Top Notch was owned and operated by Marlon Brown, currently serving a 40 year prison term in Nevada for battery and kidnapping, and closed in 2019 upon his conviction. The store was the alleged nexus for the unsolved, open double Las Vegas homicide case of Sydney Land, 19, and Nehemiah (Neo) Kauffman, 20.
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In 2016, It was reported to Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Tobiasson by her 16 year-old daughter, who frequented Top Notch and briefly worked there, that at least one well known pimp who had attended Centennial High School was a store manager and had a stable of underage prostitutes who worked days and entertained at night, where they were supplied with drugs and alcohol. She reported that he was pressuring her to work for him as a prostitute. Several of the girls were daughters of Las Vegas law enforcement officers and firemen. Judge Tobiasson staked out Top Notch at night, in the heart of Las Vegas' Chinatown district, copied license plates, and warned Las Vegas Metro Police Department officers during warrant requests of the illicit activities after hours at Top Notch, and that pimps who worked as employees were targeting girls from Centennial, daughters of cops, judges and firemen. A police detective entered the store in summer, 2016, but reported nothing suspicious.
On the afternoon of October 26, 2016, a detective and his teen daughter were interviewed by a LVMPD detective about prostitution and Top Notch. During questioning, Judge Tobiasson claimed that the identities of her daughter and her were purposefully revealed, either directly or indirectly, violating her request for confidentiality, as sources of suspicions and names given to police.
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In August 2016, Sydney Elysse Land, a waitress at The Palm in Caesars Palace and suspected prostitute, moved out of her parents' Las Vegas home and into The Union apartments, 4550 South Hualapai Way, with her boyfriend, Centennial High School athlete and alleged pimp Nehemiah "Neo" Kauffman. According to police, On October 8, during an exchange of texts, Kauffman, a pimp rival to Shane Valentine, the latter who worked in Top Notch Apparel, accused Valentine of being a police informant. Later, Valentine threatened to kill Kauffman, along with Land and a friend, in person at Red Rock Casino. Land and Kauffman were last seen alive the night of October 25 by convicted prostitute Frankie Zappia and Dominique Thompson, Zappia's alleged pimp. On October 26, unknown assailants entered the apartment and shot and killed Land and Kauffman at close range. Kauffman was shot in the head and Land, in the face, died a slow death. Their bodies were found by a neighbor the next day at 12:40 p.m. On Oct. 27, Metro announced that they had no motive and no suspects in the shootings. But, they had reason to believe that two male perpetrators were involved and that there had been no forcible entry. After Land's father, Steve Land, visited the apartment, he claimed that Metro left evidence behind uncollected. He stated that they neither interviewed him nor his wife, Connie Land after the killings, and didn't send a detective to their home to search Sydney's room.
Judge Tobiasson believed that because the murders were committed a few hours after her and daughter's identities were revealed as sources by LVMPD in some manner during the interview; an identification mistake may have been made by the assailants and the real targets were her daughter and she rather than Sydney Land, who could have been accused of being a police informant against the Top Notch ring and pimps. It is notable that Judge Tobiasson, her daughter, Sydney Land and her mother were all blondes. Or, a feud between pimps turned fatal and Sydney Land was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, Shane Valentine is presumed innocent and has not been charged for events the night of the deaths. He is currently jailed in Las Vegas related to animal cruelty charges while on parole for unrelated convictions.
Judge Melanie Tobiasson subsequently became embroiled in legal and professional problems due to this case and resigned her judgeship in 2021. Connie Land, Sydney's mother, was found dead by suicide in August, 2022. On January 20, 2023, Judge Tobiasson, who had recently settled a divorce with her husband, died from a gunshot wound in her Las Vegas home at age 55. The Clark County Coroner's Office ruled her death a suicide.