LAS VEGAS (AP) — A jury has found a man guilty of breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and robbing and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in June 2018.
Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter stood with his lawyers, shaking his head and glancing several times at jurors while the unanimous verdicts were read Tuesday in Clark County District Court, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
Trotter, 37, faces a possible death sentence or life in prison following his convictions on charges of murder, burglary and robbery with a weapon. He was convicted in the stabbing deaths of Sang Boi Nghia and Khoung Ba Le Nguyen at the Circus Circus hotel.
The same jury began hearing testimony and evidence Tuesday in the penalty phase of his trial.
Jurors deliberated about three hours after hearing some two weeks of evidence and testimony, the Review-Journal reported.
They learned that Nghia, 38, owned a tour business with her husband in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Nguyen, 30, was Nghia's employee. Their bodies were found on June 1, 2018, after they did not show up for a tour group trip. Police said hotel employees later determined the door lock on their room didn’t work properly.
Trotter was identified as a suspect in the killings before he and his girlfriend, Itaska Dean, were arrested about a week later, following a police chase in Chino, California.
Trotter was serving five years’ probation at the time after pleading guilty to felony resisting a police officer with a weapon, authorities said. He has been jailed in Las Vegas while awaiting trial, which was postponed several times because of the COVID-19 pandemic and pretrial litigation.
Dean pleaded guilty in California to evading arrest. She was not charged with any crime in the slayings of Nghia and Nguyen, and testified during Trotter's trial.
Trotter testified last week that a friend who had given him stolen goods to resell in the past gave him items belonging to Nghia and Nguyen, the Review-Journal reported. But prosecutors showed video of Trotter in a hotel elevator with a backpack that police said included a purse, two wallets, a cellphone, jewelry, watches and Vietnamese cash.
Prosecutor Michelle Fleck cast Nghia and Nguyen as "completely innocent people” who did nothing to deserve being killed, the Review-Journal reported.
Defense attorney Lisa Rasmussen argued that forensic evidence was lacking and Trotter’s DNA and fingerprints were not found in the hotel room, the newspaper said.
Defendant Julius Trotter, a previously convicted felon who was charged with breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and robbing and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in June 2018, reacts after after hearing his guilty verdict in his murder case, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Bong Le, mother of a stabbing victim Khuong Nguyen, reacts to the guilty verdict in defendant Julius Trotter's murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. Comforting Le is Hung Quang Nguyen, husband of a stabbing victim Sang Nghia, second left, and Tuan Trinh. At rear is interpreter Jimmy Tong Nguyen. ( (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Defendant Julius Trotter, a previously convicted felon who is charged with breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and robbing and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in June 2018, waits in the courtroom for the verdict in his murder trial, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. (K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
WOLFSBURG, Germany (AP) — Borussia Dortmund's losing run hit a new low with elimination from the German Cup in a 1-0 second-round loss to Wolfsburg on Tuesday to increase the pressure on coach Nuri Sahin.
Dortmund's injury-hit team struggled to generate scoring chances in a drab 90 minutes before Wolfsburg forward Jonas Wind settled the game in extra time with a 116th-minute goal.
That consigned Dortmund to a third straight loss in all competitions, a fifth defeat in a row in away games, and its earliest cup exit since the 2010-11 season.
The frustration was visible as goalkeeper Gregor Kobel hurled his gloves against the bench after the final whistle.
Even playing extra time was a problem for Dortmund, given its lengthy injury list.
Midfielders Pascal Gross and Emre Can had to fill gaps in the defense and Sahin, who was already under pressure after Dortmund's losses at Real Madrid and Augsburg last week, made only one substitution in the 90 minutes, bringing on American forward Cole Campbell for only his second senior Dortmund game.
Marcel Sabitzer made an extra-time cameo off the bench despite carrying a back injury, but his most notable contribution was losing the ball to Wind for the Danish striker to score Wolfsburg's goal.
Dortmund's busy schedule doesn't let up with a game against Leipzig in the Bundesliga on Saturday and a visit from Austria's Sturm Graz in the Champions League next week.
Last season's German Cup winner Bayer Leverkusen cruised into the third round with a 3-0 win over second-tier Elversberg. Patrik Schick scored twice in the first nine minutes and Aleix Garcia converted a free kick for his first goal since joining Leverkusen from Girona for this season.
Leipzig beat St. Pauli 4-2 to avoid a repeat of last season's second-round exit when it was the two-time defending champion in the cup.
Leipzig had a 3-1 lead after 30 minutes but St. Pauli got back into the game with Eric Smith's lob in the 58th and was pushing to level the score. The 19-year-old Norway winger Antonio Nusa dribbled past two defenders and scored Leipzig's fourth to secure the win.
Stuttgart had to work hard to break down last season's cup finalist Kaiserslautern in a 2-1 win settled by Chris Führich's first goal of the season in the 75th.
Second-tier Cologne upset Bundesliga club Holstein Kiel 3-0, while Augsburg beat second-division Schalke 3-0 to reach the third round for the first time since 2018-19. The lowest-ranked team left in the competition, fourth-tier Kickers Offenbach, was beaten 2-0 by second-division Karlsruhe.
Ten-man Jahn Regensburg held on to beat Greuther Fürth 1-0 after goalscorer Rasim Bulic was sent off for a dangerous tackle.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Fans of VfL Wolfsburg set off pyrotechnics during a second-round German Cup soccer match against Borussia Dortmund, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Wolfsburg, Germany. (Swen Pförtner/dpa via AP)
Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck, right, battles for the ball with Wolfsburg's Patrick Wimmer during a second-round German Cup soccer match, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, in Wolfsburg, Germany. (Swen Pförtner/dpa via AP)
RB Leipzig's Yussuf Poulsen celebrates after his goal against St. Pauli in a German Cup soccer match in Leipzig, Germany Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Hendrik Schmidtdpa via AP)
Leverkusen's head coach Xabi Alonso reacts during the German Soccer Cup match between Bayer Leverkusen and SV Elversberg at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Leverkusen's scorer Patrik Schick, right, celebrates his opening goal with Leverkusen's Jonas Hofmann during the German Soccer Cup match between Bayer Leverkusen and SV Elversberg at the BayArena in Leverkusen, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
