Hong Shu Liu, 78, died months after five people allegedly broke into his Las Vegas home in January 2023, bound his hands with duct tape, and pistol-whipped him. The suspects are also accused of dunking his wife’s head in water in the bathtub. (Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS/YouTube; Inset: Liu’s obituary)
Five people were indicted for murder after a home invasion at an $8.2 million Las Vegas mansion earlier this year turned fatal when a 78-year-old man died months after the suspects broke into his home and pistol-whipped him and doused his wife’s head in a bathtub full in water, court documents say.
Lamonte Zyquise Butler, 25, Howard Eugene Cavitt, 28, Denzale Lee, 28, Raven Samone Queen, 28, and Antonio Darnell Washington, 26, were already facing charges related to 11 home invasions from October through January, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
An indictment filed Oct. 12 alleges that on Jan. 12, the suspects broke into a home on the city’s west side. Queen remained outside while the four others forced their way in, tied up Hong Shu Liu with duct tape and hit him with a pistol while demanding valuables, the indictment said. They also allegedly bound his wife with duct tape, dragged her to a bathtub, and dunked her head in the water, not allowing her to come up for air until she told them where expensive items and cash were.
They stole a Hermès Birkin handbag, Chanel bag, jewelry, and cash, according to the indictment.
Liu, who was born in China, died on Sept. 17, his obituary said. The Clark County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death as “complications of multiple blunt force injuries.” His wife survived.
Queen tried selling the stolen handbags on Facebook while Washington’s DNA was found on the duct tape, CBS Las Vegas affiliate KLAS reported. All five were staying at a Las Vegas Strip hotel at the time of the home invasion.
Police said in January they were investigating a string of burglaries in the area since October. The suspects would use golf courses, desert areas, and walking paths to access the homes.
In a break-in on Jan. 11, the suspects allegedly stole six Louis Vuitton bags, about $3,500 in cash, jewelry and other items. The next day, Queen, Roberts and two others gained access to a home in Henderson by breaking a window and then shooting the homeowner, a YouTube personality named Cordero Brady, inside the home, the indictment said.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Brady, known as CJ So Cool with nearly 9 million subscribers on YouTube, got into a gun battle with the thieves and was shot several times. He had non-life-threatening injuries.
“So I’m just grateful that everything happened the way it happened,” Brady said. “I’m grateful that I’m alive, they missed all the major arteries, I didn’t need any surgery, I didn’t even need blood transfusions, and I didn’t need to move because guess what? I’m the one that ran them up out of here. So all these things happening in a bad situation, you gotta think about the good things, and I just mentioned the good things.”
The suspects were arrested on Jan. 24 and taken to jail. They have a court date scheduled for Oct. 30.
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