One of two men accused of carrying out a high-profile robbery spree that killed two people — including a senior at the Fashion Show mall parking garage on the Las Vegas Strip — accepted a plea deal Thursday.
Jordan Ruby, 22, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder before Chief District Judge Tierra Jones.
Ruby and his co-defendant, Jesani Carter, 24, are charged with killing Clarice Yamaguchi, 66, in the garage at Fashion Show and also the killing of Hyo Sup Um, 60, at the Palace Station parking garage over New Year’s weekend in late 2021.
During a brief court appearance Thursday, Jones asked Ruby if he understood he will be sentenced to 35 years to life in prison as part of the plea deal.
“Yes m’am,” said Ruby, who at times was observed smiling in court.
Both a Clark County prosecutor and Ruby’s public defenders declined to comment after the hearing. Charges against Carter are still pending, with prosecutors initially saying they were seeking the death penalty against both.
Carter previously denied involvement in an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The two, authorities said, were linked to multiple robberies in parking structures at casinos and the Fashion Show.
Yamaguchi was killed on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve. She was walking back to her car with her husband to get a face mask when a passenger in a passing BMW got out and tried to take her purse, police have said. A round went off and struck Yamaguchi when her husband briefly tussled with the man, police said.
After the killing, the suspects targeted an employee at the Sahara Las Vegas, police said. The employee had reported that someone tried to take his backpack and then fired a round at him when he ran away.
The BMW then was seen at Palace Station, where a woman was robbed at gunpoint in a parking garage, the detective testified.
A short time later, Um was shot in the same parking garage, and his wallet was missing after the shooting, police have said. He died at University Medical Center.
In court filings, Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo previously wrote “the evidence will show that the two defendants came to Las Vegas on the busiest day of the year to ‘make money’ by robbing people in the tourist corridor.”
“During the course of their actions to ‘make money,’ the two defendants killed two innocent bystanders while taking their money and/or property,” the prosecutor said.
DiGiacomo also has said that during a recorded phone call from jail, Ruby told a woman that “he came to Las Vegas for the purpose of robbing people on New Year’s.”
Carter previously told the Review-Journal in 2022 that police arrested the “wrong person,” and repeatedly implored the public to research him, saying he was a “platinum” gambler at a Strip resort, wears outfits that cost thousands of dollars, and he did not have a need to steal from anyone.
“Add me up,” he said.
“We’re gonna be all right,” he also said from a video monitor at the jail. “I’m gonna be free tomorrow.”
Carter and Ruby remain housed at the Clark County Detention Center. Ruby’s sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 17.
Contact Glenn Puit at gpuit@reviewjournal.com.
