Jury returns verdict in Circus Circus double homicide case

LAS VEGAS — A Las Vegas jury has found a 37-year-old man guilty of killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in their Circus Circus hotel room in 2018.

Jurors will now decide whether Julius Trotter should die for the murders. The jury deliberated for just over an hour on Monday, and under two hours on Tuesday morning.

Trotter was convicted of two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon. He was accused of breaking into a hotel room with a broken lock at the Circus Circus and fatally stabbing tourists Sang Nghia and Khuong Nguyen on June 1, 2018.

Cries were heard from both sides of the courtroom gallery as the verdict was read Tuesday morning. Trotter shook his head, glancing repeatedly at the jury as a clerk announced the verdicts.

The penalty phase of the trial is set to begin Tuesday afternoon with testimony from a detective, as well as Nghia and Nguyen’s family members.

Prosecutors argued that Trotter broke into the Circus Circus hotel room during a “door push,” while he was trying to find easily accessible hotel rooms to steal tourists’ belongings.

Trotter was seen on surveillance footage in a Circus Circus elevator in the two Nghia and Nguyen were staying in. About 45 minutes later, surveillance footage captured him returning to his room and quickly checking out. He then stopped at an ATM and checked into the Palms casino, where he began gambling.

He was arrested days later in Chino, California, where he and his ex-girlfriend had led police on a car chase, prosecutors said.

“We have two completely innocent people who were savagely murdered by the defendant in what they assumed was the safety and security of their own hotel room,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck told the jury during closing arguments Monday. “They did nothing to contribute to their own demise. They did not deserve this.”

Lisa Rasmussen, one of Trotter’s defense attorneys, said during closing arguments that there was not enough forensic evidence tying Trotter to the hotel room where Nghia and Nguyen were killed. She said Trotter’s DNA and fingerprints were not found in the hotel room.

Police found stolen items belonging to Nghia and Nguyen with Trotter when he was arrested. A pair of shoes found with him also had traces of the victims’ blood, along with Trotter’s DNA.

Defense attorneys argued that Trotter wears a different shoe size than the shoes with blood on them. Trotter testified to the jury last week that he received the victims’ belongings and sneakers from a friend who occasionally sells him stolen goods for resale.

If Trotter is sentenced to die, it would be the second time a Clark County jury renders a death sentence in the span of a month, after Robert Brown received capital punishment in early October for the 2012 murder of his girlfriend. The most recent death penalty verdict in Clark County was seven years prior, when a Las Vegas jury sentenced Thomas Randolph to die in 2017 verdict that has since been overturned.

_____