Jury sentences man convicted of 2018 Circus Circus killings

A Las Vegas jury has sentenced a man to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2018 double homicide at the Circus Circus, sparing his life from the death penalty.

The jury found Julius Trotter guilty on Tuesday of two counts of murder with a deadly weapon, two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon and burglary with a deadly weapon, convicting him of fatally stabbing Vietnamese tourists Sang Nghia and Khuong Nguyen in their hotel room on June 1, 2018.

He was accused of killing the coworkers during a “door push,” in which someone attempts to find hotel rooms with doors left open in order to steal belongings. Nghia and Nguyen’s hotel room at the Circus Circus, which they checked into hours earlier, had a broken lock, prosecutors have said.

The penalty phase of the trial lasted Tuesday and Wednesday, with testimony from Nghia and Nguyen’s family members, as well as Trotter’s family. The verdict was read Thursday at 11 a.m.

Nghia was a mother of three who worked as the president of a tour guide company she operated with her husband. Nguyen was one of her employees, and the two were last-minute additions who came with a third tour guide and a group of clients traveling to the United States from Ho Chi Minh City.

Prosecutors stopped short of directly asking the jury to sentence Trotter to die during closing arguments on Wednesday. Defense attorneys emphasized Trotter’s large family, who still maintains contact with him while he has been incarcerated for the past six years.

“I want to continue 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,” Trotter told the jury on Wednesday, when he asked them to spare his life.

Surveillance footage captured Trotter in the early morning hours that Nghia and Nguyen were killed, taking an elevator in the Circus Circus tower the two were staying in. He was then seen in footage returning to his room at the Circus Circus Manor about 45 minutes later, quickly checking out of the hotel and leaving to deposit cash at an ATM and gamble at the Palms casino.

Trotter was arrested in California days later, where police found him with multiple items belongings to the victims.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.