Insets: Jordan Ruby and Jesani Carter. Background: The BMW that Ruby and Carter crashed after a string of robberies and two murders in Las Vegas, Nev. (KSNV).
A Nevada man will spend more than three decades behind bars for killing a woman along the Las Vegas Strip while robbing people “on the busiest day of the year to ‘make money.'”
Jordan Ruby, 22, was sentenced Thursday to between 35 years and life behind bars for the slaying of 66-year-old Clarice Yamaguchi. He pleaded guilty in August to first-degree murder.
Ruby’s co-defendant, Jesani Carter, 24, pleaded guilty to the killing of Yamaguchi and the murder of 60-year-old Hyo Sup “Richard” Um, along with several robbery counts. He will be sentenced on Oct. 8.
Yamaguchi and her husband were vacationing on New Year’s Eve 2021 in Vegas and were walking back to their car in a mall parking lot when Ruby and Carter drove up in a BMW.
The passenger got out and demanded Yamaguchi’s purse. Her husband was trying to fight the man off when a shot rang out, hitting Yamaguchi.
Yamaguchi’s daughter addressed the court and spoke about her mother’s 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 said, according to local CBS affiliate KLAS.
Robert Yamaguchi said he wishes Ruby got a “death sentence.”
“I am really disappointed,” he said.
Prosecutors reportedly called Carter the “leader of this rampage that went on in our community.” They said Ruby has shown remorse.
Ruby took accountability, saying there was no excuse for his actions.
“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 said. “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 report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ruby and Carter drove away and went to the Sahara Las Vegas, where they tried to steal a backpack from an employee and shot at him before driving to the Palace Station.
They robbed a woman at gunpoint in the parking garage and then stole Um’s wallet and shot him dead, according to police.
The duo fled but later crashed their BMW into a tree and were arrested.
Before agreeing to plead guilty, Carter, in a jailhouse interview with the Review-Journal shortly after his arrest, insisted cops arrested the wrong guy. He claimed he was a big-time gambler who already owned expensive clothes, so there was no need for him to rob anyone.
“I’m gonna be free tomorrow,” he said.
The post Man who shot woman dead as her husband fought with ‘everything he had against her attacker to protect the love of his life’ is headed to prison first appeared on Law & Crime.
