A California mother was nearly strangled with a shoelace in a horror attack outside her Las Vegas hotel room.
Kailee Woods, 27, had traveled to the Nevada city on September 22 to attend an Eagles performance and was staying alone at the Plaza Hotel on Main Street.
The single mother told police she was approached outside the hotel casino by a young man who asked to borrow her cell phone. She said he later followed her to her room and brutally assaulted her in the hallway.
Her sister Kristal Miller, 29, told DailyMail.com exclusively that Woods suffered a serious brain injury from a lack of oxygen and was only alive because two men ran outside to help her after hearing the commotion. She also shared gruesome photos of Woods’ injuries and the crime scene at the hotel.
The suspect was later identified as Antonio Cortez Hernandez, 21. He appeared in court Wednesday after being charged with attempted murder, battery by strangulation and battery with a deadly weapon.
His charges were referred to the district court for a custody review, a district court clerk told DailyMail.com. He is due back in court on November 15, where he will be assessed by a doctor to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial.
He is currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.
Kailee Woods, 27, is pictured with her young son as she graduates from nursing school. Before the terrifying attack, she worked as a home care aide
A black shoelace pictured on the hotel floor where Woods told police she was attacked
Woods told police she was standing outside the hotel smoking with another man she met that evening when her attacker first approached her.
She said he claimed he was separated from his friends and his cell phone had died, so he had to borrow a phone to ask a family member to pick him up.
Miller told DailyMail.com that her sister said he reminded her of their younger brother, was smartly dressed and very polite, so she wanted to help.
Woods then asked for her phone back and told the man she was going to her room.
But after riding the elevator to the 11th floor, she said the man appeared out of nowhere in the empty hallway outside her room.
She wanted to go to sleep because it was around 3:30 am and was shocked that he had found her. She became irritated when he asked if she could use her phone again.
Her sister told DailyMail.com that she told him ‘you can’t follow people to their rooms’ – and told him to go to the lobby for help.
“My sister never gave her floor number and she didn’t know his name,” Miller said.
He reportedly claimed he needed the numbers he called from her phone, so she told him to step back and find him some paper and a pen.
Unable to find it, she tore a page out of a book she was reading and grabbed an eyeliner from her makeup bag.
The strangulation marks around Wood’s neck, taken while she was in hospital after the near-fatal attack that took place at the Plaza hotel last month
Kailee Woods, 27 (right) pictured with her older sister Kristal Miller, 29
She told police that it was then that she noticed he was carrying a black shoelace in his hands that had not been there before.
Miller recalled her sister describing having a “strange feeling” and then knowing something was wrong.
She said he then asked her to help him write down the grades for him, which she started doing in hopes he would leave.
She claims he then got upset and tried to grab her, so she threw the paper on the floor and ran down the hall shouting ‘get the fuck off me.’
Her sister told DailyMail.com that a struggle ensued and he put the shoelace around her neck and squeezed it tightly until she fell to the floor unconscious.
Miller said her sister wasn’t sure how long she was gone, but when she woke up, she started screaming and kicking a nearby door as he continued to strangle her.
Eventually, two men in the room closest to the attack opened the door and saw the victim lying unconscious on the floor.
The attacker fled and the men were unable to catch him. But a black shoelace and a mysterious orange strap were found discarded in the hallway.
The men called police and an ambulance took Woods to University Medical Center, where she was placed in intensive care.
Miller said her sister suffered a brain injury and that doctors told her that if the seizure had lasted even a few more seconds, she likely would have died.
A photo of the hallway at The Plaza Hotel where the attack took place
Woods described how she gave her attacker eyeliner and tore a page out of the book she was reading to write some things down just before the attack.
According to the police report, Hernandez was arrested two weeks later on October 5.
He was charged with battery by strangulation, attempted murder and battery with a deadly weapon. He is being held on a $500,000 bond in the Clark County Jail.
Miller said her sister was initially subpoenaed to attend Wednesday’s hearing, but the district attorney’s office told her that had been postponed.
Detective Dorethea Brewer of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told DailyMail.com that she could not provide further details on the case because it is an active investigation.
Megan McCarthy of the LVMPD Public Records Division said that under a new Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that took effect last month, mugshots for open cases cannot be released.
Hernandez was also charged with theft for an unrelated incident. He appeared in court for the preliminary hearing on Monday.
Miller claimed that hotel security initially misreported the attack as a possible one-night stand gone wrong.
“The head of security said it was domestic violence after she got into an argument with a romantic partner, but that’s not what happened,” she continued.
“They have video footage and everything confirms this was a random stranger. He was never in her room and they didn’t take the same elevator or go up together. It made us very upset. They didn’t take it seriously.’
Miller added: “The attack was so brutal. He did it in the open air. We don’t understand how he got into the elevator without a room key.” The family said they plan to file a lawsuit against the hotel.
DailyMail.com has contacted the hotel for comment.
The Plaza Hotel & Casino on Freemont is located on the Vegas strip on N. Main Street
Woods is recovering at home as the scars on her neck heal
Another corner of the hallway at The Plaza Hotel & Casino where the elevators are located
Miller explained that her sister was originally going to travel to Vegas with a friend couldn’t make the trip at the last minute.
She added that she did not go herself because she had just had a baby, but described her sister as very “independent.”
The concert was on September 20 and the attack took place two days later.
Miller said Woods, a single mother of a 7-year-old son, is traumatized and has struggled with anxiety and PTSD since the attack.
She added that Woods worked as a home health aide but is now terrified of being alone in a stranger’s home.
Miller said the ordeal has left her “stomach aching.”
“We believe that what he did demonstrated premeditation and that he left his home that night with the intent and plan to harm a stranger. We hope he gets a long prison sentence.”
She added: ‘I hope her story will help other women to be careful and not make the same mistakes my sister made, which made her an easy target.’
The Plaza Hotel is one of the largest downtown properties on the Las Vegas strip. Since its construction in 1971, it has been featured in a number of films, television productions and music videos.
The hotel is 22 stories tall, has 504 rooms and a 6,000-square-foot casino, according to the company’s media kit.