American may face death for Vietnamese tourists’ murder

Prosecutors have sought time to decide on whether or not to ask for the death penalty in the murder of two Vietnamese tourists last June. They have been given until November 13 to make a decision.

Julius Trotter, 31, showed up at a hearing on Thursday and pleaded not guilty to accusations that he stabbed two Vietnamese tour employees to death while robbing them at a hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, a Washington Times report says.

Trotter’s attorney declined to comment.

Julius Trotter, charged with killing two Vietnamese tourists in Las Vegas in June this year, in a file photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department

The victims were Nghia Boi Sang, 38, director of a Ho Chi Minh City-based tourist company and her 30-year-old employee Nguyen Le Ba Khuong, who had arrived at Las Vegas on May 31 and stayed at the Circus Circus hotel and casino. Their bodies were found with multiple stab wounds on the afternoon of June 1.

A week after the murder, on June 7, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Las Vegas police captured the suspect in California after a 5-km car chase. The arrest was based on the hotel’s surveillance camera footage.

Trotter is being held without bail.

Following the incident, Vietnam's foreign ministry instructed its embassy in Washington and consulate general in San Francisco to coordinate with local authorities in providing assistance to the victims' families so they could come to the U.S. and arrange for their funerals.

The ministry also requested the U.S. police to solve the case and promptly inform Vietnam of the result of their investigation.

Trotter had pleaded guilty last year in Las Vegas to resisting a police officer with a weapon, and had been sentenced to five years' probation for felony.