‘Justice has been served’: Man convicted of Circus Circus killings gets life without parole

A Las Vegas jury has sentenced a man to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2018 double homicide at 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 Circus Circus, which they checked into hours earlier, had a broken lock, prosecutors have said.

Although the jury sentenced Trotter to the two murder charges, District Judge Michelle Leavitt will formally sentence him for the robbery and burglary charges, plus the deadly weapon enhancement on all the charges, during a hearing on Jan. 15.

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.

The jury found that the mitigating factors, such as Trotter’s good behavior while in custody and supportive family, outweighed the aggravating factors that made it possible for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty, including the multiple murders and committing the crime during a robbery and burglary.

Trotter was seen mouthing “thank you” to the jury after the verdict was read.

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.

Nghia’s husband and Nguyen’s mother both said they were satisfied with the jury’s verdict sentencing Trotter to life in prison, rather than the death penalty.

“Truthfully, the tragedy already happened, the person is gone,” Hung Nguyen, Nghia’s husband, told the Review-Journal through a translator. “With the penalty I feel that it is adequate for the crime … I don’t want to end a life of another human.”

Khuong Nguyen’s mother, Bong Le, was seen crying throughout much of the trial. She told jurors while testifying during the penalty phase that her husband died from complications of a stroke after learning of her son’s death. She said she has pushed through the past six years in order to witness the trial.

“The loss of my son was so much painful for me,” Le said on Thursday, speaking through a translator. “Today justice has been served.”

Prosecutors stopped short of directly asking the jury to sentence Trotter to die during closing arguments on Wednesday, instead focusing on the violent nature of the killings. Chief Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck told jurors that Trotter deserves “nothing less than life without (parole).”

“We are grateful for the time and attention of the jurors,” Fleck said in a statement following Thursday’s verdict. “Their service and their ultimate verdict has given the victims and their families the closure they deserve.”

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 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 belonging to the victims.

Defense attorneys emphasized Trotter’s large family in their closing arguments, and said that he still maintains contact with them while helping to support his children through coordinating sports bets while behind bars.

“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.

Lisa Rasmussen, one of Trotter’s defense attorneys, said that he intends to exercise his right to appeal the case. Trotter has maintained since he was arrested that he did not commit the killings, and that he received the victims’ stolen items from a friend, Rasmussen said.

“I am really pleased that the jurors opted themselves to take death off the table by determining that the mitigators outweigh the aggravators, and that made the death penalty no longer an option,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said that although this was a “very sad offense” with two people who were killed, she does not believe that her client is one of the “worst of the worst” offenders deserving of the death penalty.

“To me, this is a little bit of overreach by the district attorney’s office, and I hope that in the future we can have better narrowing of the decisions on when to seek death,” she said.

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