Man found guilty of killing 2 from Vietnam in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2018

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