Man convicted of Circus Circus murders sentenced to life in prison without parole

Las Vegas jury sentences man to life in prison without parole Double homicide of 2018 in Circus Circus, saving his life from the death penalty.

A jury convicted Julius Trotter on Tuesday of two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon in the fatal stabbing of Vietnamese tourists Sang Nghia and Khuong Nguyen in their hotel room. numbers for June 1, 2018.

He was accused of killing his colleagues during a “door busting” where someone tries to find hotel rooms with the door open to steal things. Prosecutors said the lock had been broken in Nghia and Nguyen’s Circus Circus hotel room, where they had checked in hours earlier.

Although a jury convicted Trotter of two counts of murder, District Judge Michelle Levitt will formally sentence him on the robbery and burglary charges, as well as the use of a deadly weapon charge, on all counts during a Jan. 15 hearing.

The penalty phase of the trial continued Tuesday and Wednesday, with testimony from members of the Nghia and Nguyen families, as well as the Trotter family. The verdict was read on Thursday at 11 am

The jury found that mitigating factors, such as Trotter’s good behavior while incarcerated and family support, outweighed the aggravating factors that allowed prosecutors to seek the death penalty, including multiple murders and aggravated robbery and burglary.

After the verdict was read, Trotter said “thank you” to the jury.

Nghia was a mother of three who worked as president of a travel company she ran with her husband. Nguyen was one of her staff, and the two were last-minute additions who arrived with a third guide and a group of clients traveling to the United States from Ho Chi Minh City.

Nghia’s husband and Nguyen’s mother said they were pleased with the jury’s verdict, sentencing Trotter to life in prison rather than the death penalty.

“Truthfully, the tragedy has already happened, the person is gone,” Hung Nguyen, Nghia’s husband, told the Review-Journal through a translator. “As far as the punishment goes, I think it fits the crime … I don’t want to take another person’s life.”

Khuong Nguyen’s mother, Bong Le, was seen crying throughout much of the trial. During her penalty phase testimony, she told jurors that her husband died of complications from a stroke after learning of her son’s death. She said she pushed through the past six years to witness the process.

“Losing my son was very painful for me,” Le said Thursday through an interpreter. “Today justice was served.”

Prosecutors did not ask jurors to sentence Trotter to death during closing arguments Wednesday, instead focusing on the violent nature of the killings. Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck told jurors that Trotter deserved “nothing less than life without (parole).”

“We are grateful for the jury’s time and consideration,” Fleck said in a statement after Thursday’s verdict. “Their ministry and their final verdict brought the victims and their families the closure they deserve.”

A surveillance camera captured Trotter taking an elevator in the Circus Circus tower where the two lived in the early hours of the morning when Nghia and Nguyen were killed. The footage then shows him speeding back to his room at Circus Circus Manor about 45 minutes later. Check out of the hotel and check out to deposit cash at the ATM and play at Palms Casino.

A few days later, Trotter was arrested in California, where police found several items belonging to the victims.

In their closing arguments, attorneys highlighted Trotter’s large family and said he still keeps in touch with them, helping support his children by coordinating sports bets while behind bars.

“I want to continue to be a positive influence on the people around me, including my family, my children, my mother, my brother and sisters, and so on,” Trotter told jurors Wednesday as he pleaded with them to spare his life.

Lisa Rasmussen, one of Trotter’s defense attorneys, said he intends to exercise his right to appeal the case. After his arrest, Trotter claimed he did not commit the murders and that he received the victims’ stolen items from a friend, Rasmussen said.

“I am very pleased that the jury decided to quash death, finding that the mitigating factors outweighed the aggravating factors, and that made the death penalty impossible,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said that while it was a “very sad crime” with two people killed, she did not believe her client was one of the “worst of the worst” criminals who deserved the death penalty.

“To me, that’s a bit of an overreach on the part of the district attorney’s office, and I hope that in the future we can better narrow down the decisions about when to look for deaths,” she said.

Contact Caitlin Newberg at [email protected] or 702-383-0240.