Jury chooses life in prison for man who killed 2 from Vietnam in Las Vegas hotel room in 2018

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada jury decided Thursday that a man should serve life in state prison with no chance of parole for breaking into a room at a Las Vegas Strip hotel-casino and killing two Vietnamese tour leaders in 2018.

Julius Damiano Deangilo Trotter, 37, was spared a death sentence by the same state court jury that found him guilty on Tuesday of murder, burglary and robbery in the stabbings of Sang Boi Nghia and Khoung Ba Le Nguyen at the Circus Circus hotel.

Defense attorney Lisa Rasmussen said afterward that Trotter and his legal team appreciated the jury decision, but that Trotter will appeal his conviction and sentence “as a normal part of the criminal justice system.”

“I think everyone is grateful that Mr. Trotter was given a life sentence," Rasmussen told The Associated Press. “The jury took the death penalty off the table themselves.”

Jurors issued their decision after testimony from Trotter, his relatives and family members of Nghia and Nguyen, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Trotter was seen mouthing “thank you” to the jury after the verdict was read, the newspaper reported. Clark County District Court Judge Michelle Leavitt scheduled Trotter's sentencing Jan. 15. He remains jailed in Las Vegas.

Trotter told jurors on Wednesday that he wanted to be “a positive impact on the people around me, as far as my family, my kids, my mother, my brother and sisters, and so on.”

Nghia, 38, was a mother of three who operated a tour business with her husband in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Nguyen, 30, was one of her employees. Their bodies were found after they did not show up for a tour group trip.

Police said hotel employees later determined the room lock didn’t secure properly, and said it appeared Trotter found it unlocked while walking the hotel hallway and trying door handles.

Trotter was arrested about a week after the killings with his girlfriend, Itaska Dean, following a police chase in Chino, California.

Rasmussen acknowledged that Trotter had a prior criminal record — he was serving five years’ probation at the time of the killings after a felony conviction for resisting a police officer with a weapon. But the attorney said Trotter also had the support of a loving family.

Dean pleaded guilty in California to evading arrest. She was not charged with a crime in the slayings of Nghia and Nguyen, and testified during Trotter's trial.

Trotter also testified, denying he killed Nghia and Nguyen. But police and prosecutors said he was found with items belonging to Nghia and Nguyen including a purse, wallets, a cellphone, jewelry and Vietnamese cash.

The last person put to death in Nevada prison was Daryl Mack in April 2006, for a 1988 rape and murder in Reno. Mack asked for his lethal injection to be carried out.