A Nevada man is facing decades in prison after admitting he killed a woman on the Las Vegas Strip during a robbery spree that unfolded, prosecutors said, on “the busiest day of the year to ‘make money.'”
Jordan Ruby, 22, was sentenced Thursday to a term of 35 years to life for the killing of 66-year-old Clarice Yamaguchi. He had pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder.
His co-defendant, 24-year-old Jesani Carter, pleaded guilty to Yamaguchi’s murder as well as the killing of 60-year-old Hyo Sup “Richard” Um, in addition to multiple robbery charges. Carter is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 8.
Yamaguchi and her husband had been in Las Vegas for a New Year’s Eve trip in 2021. The pair were walking back to their car in a mall parking lot when Ruby and Carter pulled up in a BMW.
The passenger got out of the car and demanded Yamaguchi hand over her purse. Her husband tried to fight the man off, and in the struggle a shot went off, striking Yamaguchi.
Speaking in court, Yamaguchi’s daughter described what her mother witnessed in her final moments.
“The last thing my mom witnessed was my dad fighting with everything he had against her attacker to protect the love of his life,” she told the court, according to local CBS affiliate KLAS.
Robert Yamaguchi, her husband, said he had hoped Ruby would receive a “death sentence.”
“I am really disappointed,” he said.
Prosecutors described Carter as the “leader of this rampage that went on in our community,” while noting that Ruby has expressed remorse for what happened.
Ruby accepted responsibility during the hearing, saying nothing could justify what he did.
“I should have never been there, and now I have to live with that for the rest of my life and I’m sorry,” he reportedly told the court. “And I took your loved one away from you, and the rest of her family. I am working on rehabilitating myself, growing, developing, God blessed me with a second chance.”
According to a courtroom account from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the two men didn’t stop after Yamaguchi was shot. They drove to the Sahara Las Vegas, where they attempted to steal a backpack from an employee and fired a shot at him, before heading to the Palace Station.
There, police say, they robbed a woman at gunpoint in the parking garage before turning on Um, stealing his wallet and shooting him dead.
The two eventually crashed their BMW into a tree while trying to flee and were taken into custody.
Before he agreed to plead guilty, Carter gave a jailhouse interview to the Review-Journal not long after his arrest in which he denied any involvement, claiming police had the wrong man. He described himself as a serious gambler who already had money for expensive clothes and had no reason to rob anyone.
“I’m gonna be free tomorrow,” he said at the time.
