LAS VEGAS — Never-before-released court documents and amateur video help provide the clearest picture yet of what happened inside a Las Vegas strip club on Feb. 19, 2007, when Adam “Pacman” Jones showered scantily clad dancers with money. Just minutes after “making it rain,” Jones was involved in a fight inside the club. A short time later, three people were shot outside the club.
Famous Rapper Nelly Making It Rain
Jones initially was charged with felony coercion for his role in the melee. The charge later was reduced, but the incident ultimately helped push his NFL career to the brink.
The video and documents, including witness statements, search warrants and internal police memos, were obtained by “Outside the Lines” and the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The documents include differing statements Jones provided to Las Vegas police — one made the day of the shooting and one from seven months later.
The amateur video, held as evidence in the shooting case, could be played when Arvin Edwards stands trial in February. Edwards is charged with three counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting.
Jones was in Las Vegas for NBA All-Star Weekend. After losing $50,000 or $60,000 gambling at Caesars Palace, according to statements, Jones went on a hot streak, winning $120,000 at the Palms hotel and casino.<,/p>
Shortly after 2 a.m. on Feb. 19, Jones and an entourage of about seven people — a group that included his stylist; his business manager, Chris Horvath; and Robert Reid, Jones’ massive bodyguard for the evening — arrived at the Minxx Gentlemen’s Club & Lounge. Celebrity sightings at the club increased as the evening progressed. Rapper Nelly and rapper/producer Jermaine Dupri, both Grammy-winning artists, arrived at the club not long after Jones. Professional boxer Zab Judah and Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson were also in the crowd.
Jones told police he arrived at the club with “close to $100,000.” He took $40,000 out of his Louis Vuitton bag and exchanged it for several stacks of $1 bills, which he put in a black trash bag, according to his statement. So much money was thrown onto the main stage that dancers, after their sets, started filling buckets with the loose bills covering the stage.
At one point, Jones told police, Dupri called him to the stage. Jones climbed the short steps while cradling “probably about $12,000 to $14,000,” according to one of his statements.
Jones, with his bodyguard present in the background, can be seen on the video repeatedly throwing money to a dancer off stage at his feet and then over his shoulder to several dancers on stage. When several dancers bent over to collect the cash, Dupri took over the DJ’s microphone and said: “We gonna show y’all how to make it rain.”
“Don’t start getting the money until I tell y’all to get off the stage,” Dupri said. “… Just keep f—ing dancing! Don’t bend down and try to get your money.”
Moments after Dupri made those comments, the video recording ended. It was after 4:30 a.m. when trouble inside Minxx began.
According to court documents, Jones became angry when a dancer and a club promoter continued sweeping up the money he had thrown on the stage.
Two Minxx bouncers interviewed by “Outside the Lines” said Jones approached the dancer who was collecting the money, grabbed her by the hair and hit her in the face with a closed fist. Jones has denied attacking the entertainer. No charges have been filed.
According to witness statements in court documents, when Minxx bouncer Aaron Cudworth grabbed Jones in an effort to forcibly remove him from the club, Jones said, “I’m gonna kill ya. Matter of fact, all youse are gonna get it.” During the struggle, according to witnesses, Jones bit Cudworth near his left ankle.
In his second statement to police, when asked by a detective whether he had made any threats, Jones said: “No sir. Not one threat.” Jones told police that while he was “making it rain,” several dancers started fighting over the money.
While trying to break up a fight between two of the dancers, Jones said, he noticed a club promoter snatch the black trash bag, which contained the remainder of the $40,000 Jones had received in $1 bills upon entering the club. Jones told police that when he and Reid, his bodyguard, confronted the man who took the bag of cash, they were both attacked by Minxx security.
According to Jones, the bouncers put Reid in a choke hold, pulled out expandable batons like the kind carried by riot police, and hurled racial epithets at Jones and Reid.
“I’ll crack your f—ing knees, n—–,” threatened one bouncer, according to a statement Jones provided.
Jones and his entourage were thrown out of the club. Moments later, prosecutors say, a lone gunman — a man they say was Edwards — stepped from behind a palm tree at the front of the club and opened fire.
Three people were shot. Cudworth, the bouncer who fought with Jones, was shot in the chest and left forearm. Shift manager Tom Urbanski was shot in the chest. A bullet remains lodged in Urbanski’s spine, and he is paralyzed from the waist down. A patron, Natalie Jones, was grazed by a bullet on the left side of her head. The three shooting victims have filed separate civil lawsuits against Jones.
