Trial going ahead
Julius Trotter has been charged with allegedly stabbing to death two tourists in Las Vegas at the Circus Circus Casino in June 2018. He was hoping that the case against him would be thrown out, but it is now going to trial.
The defendant and his legal team claimed the police officers on the scene actually tampered with some evidence.
The evidence was the basis of a grand jury indictment against the defendant. However, the judge was not to be swayed and the trial is now going ahead.
Discovery of the murder
Trotter had a criminal record before allegedly committing these brutal attacks. He was looking for money when he allegedly stabbed the two Vietnamese tour guides to death at the Las Vegas hotel.
The crime took place during the night of June 1, 2018. The defendant was going door-to-door at the casino’s hotel, trying to find an open door. Sang Boi Nghia and Khuong Ba Le Nguyen happened to be in their room and were stabbed to death.
The bodies were found by the hotel room cleaners the following morning.
Trotter was seen on surveillance footage on the same floor, in and around the estimated time of the murders.
He was then seen leaving the hotel with Nguyen’s backpack.
It took about a week for the police officials to catch up with him. This led to a high-speed car chase in Chico, California. He was then brought back to Las Vegas to await trial.
Attempt to avoid trial
Trotter’s defense team alleged in court that the defendant’s girlfriend was coerced by police into saying that Trotter is guilty of the two murders. They implied that Trotter simply brought the stolen property inside of the casino, and that he just happened to be on the same floor where the murders took place.
The judge was not convinced and Trotter will now be facing five felony charges, including two for murder. While he is still pleading innocent, the jury will be deciding for themselves when the trial begins in March 2020. Trotter will remain in prison due to the high-speed car chase.
Details of the case
The two victims were part of a group of Vietnamese tourists visiting Las Vegas. They were set to pay a visit to the Grand Canyon the following day. According to some reports, the door lock mechanism on the hotel room was faulty, which is how the attacker got in.
[blockout]MGM Resorts own Circus Circus. Responding to the speculation that the door latch was not working properly, they said: “It is standard operating procedure for security to check every door to ensure it is latched securely. We have no record of this door being unlocked, unlatched, or malfunctioning that evening before the attack took place.”[/blockout]
The 31-year-old defendant is also a suspect in another Las Vegas robbery. This involves a woman aged 81 who was beaten and robbed at a hotel in downtown Las Vegas.