Circus Circus murder trial starts in Las Vegas; death penalty sought
Attorneys began opening statements Monday morning in a death penalty trial for a man accused of fatally stabbing two Vietnamese tour leaders in a Circus Circus hotel room more than six years ago.
Julius Trotter, 37, is standing trial on two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, burglary with a deadly weapon and robbery with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty and have accused Trotter of fatally stabbing Sang Nghia and Khuong Nguyen during the early hours of June 1, 2018, after he got into their hotel room because of a broken lock.
Prosecutors argued the killing happened as part of a robbery, but defense attorney Ozzie Fumo said during opening statements that Nghia and Nguyen were killed in a “targeted hit” while staying at the Circus Circus.
He said that after Nguyen had died, he was stabbed again in the heart, lungs and genitals. Nghia also suffered stab wounds to her breasts and buttocks, Fumo argued Monday.
“This person who killed these people knew exactly what to target and knew exactly what to hit,” he said.
Nguyen worked for the tour company that Nghia operated with her husband. The two of them had arrived in the U.S. days earlier, as part of a tour group traveling from Ho Chi Minh City to Los Angeles, with a side trip to Las Vegas. The small group also had a main tour guide, Tuan Trinh, who testified on Monday afternoon through a Vietnamese interpreter.
Fumo argued that Nguyen and Nghia were “very close,” and he played surveillance footage of Nghia leaning against Nguyen in an elevator. But Trinh testified on Monday that Nguyen was gay and that Nghia’s husband was fine with her sharing a room with him.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck alleged that Trotter killed the two during a “door push,” in which someone attempts to find hotel rooms accidentally left open, in order to steal tourists’ belongings.
“He snuck into their room, he killed them and he took their belongings,” Fleck said.
‘I can never forget’
Trinh said that on the morning after checking into the hotel, Nguyen and Nghia didn’t come out of their room to attend a tour of the Hoover Dam. He took the group on the outing but asked a security guard to check on his coworkers when they still weren’t responding by that afternoon.
He stood up and demonstrated how he nearly fainted when he saw the bloody scene inside the hotel room.
“I can never forget,” Trinh said through an interpreter.
Itaska Dean, Trotter’s former girlfriend and mother of his child, testified Monday that she and Trotter were staying at the Circus Circus Manor rooms the night of the killing.
Surveillance footage captured Trotter leaving the Circus Circus Manor around 4 a.m. and taking an elevator in the Circus Circus tower where Nguyen and Nghia were staying. He headed back to his room about 45 minutes later, with his shirt turned inside out, and he and Dean quickly checked out, Fleck argued.
Dean testified that Trotter came into the room in the early morning wanting to leave the hotel, and the two got a taxi to an ATM before checking into the Palms. Prosecutors said that Trotter immediately began gambling when he got to the Palms that morning.
Conflicting testimony
She said she wanted to go back to her home in Chino, California, so that Trotter could see their son. Days later, Dean and Trotter led police on a car chase in Southern California that ended with Trotter’s arrest.
She previously testified to a grand jury that Trotter told her, “I may be going to jail for murder.” While testifying on Monday, Dean said Trotter never actually told her he may be in trouble for a suspected murder.
Although Dean had previously testified that Trotter had thrown items away in bathrooms at the Palms after the alleged killing, she testified Monday that she had only assumed that’s what Trotter was doing. Dean said her statements to investigators conflicted because she was “scared.”
“I don’t want to go to jail for murder. I know that I didn’t murder anyone,” she said.
When police arrested Trotter, they found Nghia’s purse and Nguyen’s backpack in the car that Dean was driving during the car chase. Nghia’s watch was also found in the home where couple was staying, prosecutors said.
Fumo argued on Monday that although Trotter was found with the victims’ items, the state does not have enough evidence to prove that he killed them. He said that the victims’ property could have been discarded in the stairwell immediately next to their room, which had no surveillance cameras.
“Correlation does not equal causation, is what the evidence in this case will show,” Fumo said.
Fleck told the jury that “all the common sense in the world” shows that Trotter is guilty of the killings.
“Tragically, ladies and gentlemen, Sang and Khuong’s trip to Las Vegas didn’t end with photos, memories or trinkets from a Las Vegas Boulevard souvenir shop,” Fleck told the jury. “Instead it ends here, in this trial, with all of you.”
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.