31-year-old found guilty of murder could face death penalty

A Clark County jury took about four hours to find 31-year-old Bryan Hall guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery for the May 2009 brutal killing of his former best friend at Caesars Palace.

The same jury will next decide whether Bryan Hall should be sentenced to death for slaying Brad Flamm. The penalty phase of the trial began Wednesday afternoon.

The jury will decide whether to sentence Hall to death; life in prison without parole; life in prison with the possibility of parole after 20 years; or 20 to 50 years in prison.

Hall sobbed as he testified Monday that he was drunk and enraged when he beat Flamm, 27. Hall said Flamm made a derogatory remark about his then- girlfriend, now wife, and the couple’s daughter.

But prosecutors said Hall had a vicious jealous streak that led him to Caesars Palace on Mother’s Day weekend in 2009. Flamm had a previous sexual relationship with Hall’s girlfriend.

Prosecutor David Stanton called Hall’s sobbing testimony “an act.”

Hall pummeled Flamm with his fists, strangled him with a necktie, beat him in the head with a rock and paint bucket and slit his throat twice. Hall then hid Flamm’s body on the east end of the Caesars property, under bushes near the loading docks.

Hall said he fought with his girlfriend before the slaying because she was nagging him about their crying daughter. He testified he left his girlfriend with their daughter and went to Trevi, an Italian restaurant at the Forum Shops, hoping to hitch a ride home with his former co-workers.

Defense attorneys tried to convince the jury that the killing was done in “the heat of passion” and argued Hall was guilty of second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.

Contact reporter Francis McCabe at fmccabe@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039.