Video captures robbery, killing at Las Vegas mall
Newly released video captured the robbery of a 66-year-old woman slain outside the Fashion Show Mall on New Year’s Eve.
Clarice Yamaguchi, of Hawaii, was robbed and shot during what authorities said was part of a crime spree that randomly targeted victims in Las Vegas Valley parking garages.
The video, presented to a Clark County grand jury that indicted two men earlier this month in the killing, shows Yamaguchi and her husband in the mall’s parking garage as they were approached by an assailant who emerged from the front passenger seat of a silver BMW.
The video shows a brief struggle between Yamaguchi, her husband and the robber before she crumpled to the ground from a fatal gunshot wound. The assailant then jumped back into the silver BMW and fled the scene.
Jordan Ruby, 18, and Jesani Carter, 20, both of California, have since been indicted on murder and robbery charges.
Las Vegas police said the pair is also charged in the killing of another man, Hyo Sup Um, 60, in a robbery at the Palace Station on the same night.
In addition, authorities have alleged that Ruby and Carter are connected to three other robberies in parking garages over two days in Las Vegas.
A woman also was robbed in the Palace Station parking garage near where Um was slain. Another armed robbery occurred in the Wynn Las Vegas parking garage the day before the killings. The fifth robbery, police said, targeted an employee at Sahara Las Vegas who was shot at. Those robberies did not result in anyone being seriously injured, but video from the holdups also was presented to the grand jury.
Carter’s defense attorneys, Lisa Rasmussen and Caitlyn McAmis, said Friday that they were conducting their own investigation into the case. As of Tuesday morning, the defense attorneys were still waiting to receive all of the evidence presented to the grand jury.
“We look forward to litigating the complex and myriad issues related to Jesani’s case in court at the appropriate time,” Rasmussen said in an e-mailed statement to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Ruby’s defense attorney, Ed Kane, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Authorities have said Carter has extensive ties to the vehicle used in the crimes and that he was stopped by Southern Nevada law enforcement in the vehicle six weeks prior to the killing. A body camera video generated from that traffic stop was presented to the grand jury as evidence.
Las Vegas police investigators also testified in grand jury proceedings that a gun found in the vehicle when the pair were arrested at Bally’s resort a day after the slayings had been linked to Yamaguchi’s slaying and the robbery at the Sahara.
In a January court hearing, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo said Ruby was recorded on jailhouse phone calls claiming he was only the getaway driver, not the shooter. The prosecutor said Ruby stated on the calls he “came to Las Vegas for the purpose of robbing people on New Year’s.”
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter.