‘Terrifying’: Woman accused of attempted murder on Las Vegas road trip

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of lighting her friend’s car on fire while people were asleep in the vehicle at a California gas station, a June 16 news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department says.

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According to the release, Nicole Najlis, a 30-year-old Oregon resident, lit fire to her friend’s car while two of its occupants were asleep at a Pilot truck stop in Hesperia during their road trip from San Diego to Las Vegas. When deputies arrived around midnight, they saw two vehicles “fully engulfed in flames,” where bystanders pointed them to Najlis. One of the victims and the owner of one of the cars told officials that she purposely set his vehicle on fire following a dispute; she “poured fuel from a can into the trunk area of the car” and “ignited the fuel by an unknown means,” the release says. Two friends who were in the vehicle managed to escape when they awoke from the flames. 

According to the New York Post, Najlis demanded Xanax from James Bahr, the man who owned the vehicle, and allegedly became violent with him while he was driving. Najlis allegedly hit him so hard, Bahr told the outlet, that he lost control of the steering wheel and had to pull into a nearby gas station. Subsequently, Bahr told Najlis to leave the car, but she refused, so he started removing her possessions. “She started to move around some of my stuff,” he told the outlet. “Then I smell gas and as soon as I said, ‘what is that smell?’ she threw a match and lit the car on fire.”

“My vehicle was completely destroyed,” says Bahr’s GoFundMe, which describes the attack as “terrifying and life-changing.”

Najlis was arrested and booked at the High Desert Detention Center, where she faces charges of attempted murder and arson, the release says. 

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Anyone with more information on the fire is encouraged to call the Hesperia Station at 760-947-1500. Those who wish to make anonymous reports can call or text “REPORT” to We-Tip at 844-909-3006.

SBSD media representatives were not able to provide more information to SFGATE by the time of publication.