Jordan Ruby’s punishment followed years of litigation over a holiday crime sequence that left two people dead in separate parking garages.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. — What began as a robbery in a casino parking garage on Dec. 30, 2021, grew into a two-day series of armed encounters across Las Vegas, ending with two people dead, a crashed BMW and two young men in custody. Nearly five years later, Jordan Ruby has been sentenced to 35 years to life in prison.
Ruby, 22, received the sentence Sept. 24 from Chief District Judge Tierra Jones after pleading guilty to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder. His punishment is the latest legal consequence of a case that police reconstructed across several casino and shopping properties during one of Las Vegas’ busiest holiday periods. Authorities said Ruby and Jesani Carter, now 24, moved from property to property in a silver BMW while carrying out robberies or attempted robberies. By the end of New Year’s Eve, Clarice Yamaguchi, 66, and Hyo Sup Um, 60, had been fatally shot.
Investigators traced the sequence back to Dec. 30 at Wynn Las Vegas. Surveillance evidence cited in later court proceedings showed a car stopping near a woman as she walked through a parking area. A man got out and took her purse, authorities said. That encounter did not produce the deaths that would later define the case, but prosecutors treated it as an early part of the same pattern. They eventually argued that Ruby and Carter had traveled to Las Vegas during the holiday period intending to rob people in the tourist corridor, an allegation supported in part by surveillance footage and a recorded jail call attributed to Ruby.
The next afternoon, the case turned deadly at Fashion Show mall. Yamaguchi, a Hawaii resident visiting Las Vegas with her husband, Robert, had been shopping before the couple returned toward their vehicle. Police accounts said she needed to retrieve a face mask. At about 1:30 p.m., a silver BMW approached them in the parking garage. An assailant got out and tried to take Yamaguchi’s purse. Her husband rushed into the struggle and attempted to stop the robber. A gunshot was fired, striking Yamaguchi. Robert Yamaguchi continued struggling with the attacker as the man tried to get back into the BMW, according to police.
Yamaguchi was taken to University Medical Center, where she died. Surveillance video from the garage became an important piece of evidence because it captured much of the encounter and the vehicle involved. Investigators also had a witness description of people in the fleeing car. The shooting immediately drew attention because it happened at a major Strip shopping destination in the middle of the day on New Year’s Eve. For police, however, the more urgent question was whether the people responsible had stopped. Events over the next several hours indicated they had not.
Authorities said the BMW next appeared in connection with an attempted robbery at Sahara Las Vegas. An employee reported that someone tried to steal his backpack. When he ran, a shot was fired at him, according to police and court reporting. He was not reported killed. The encounter added another location and another alleged victim to the growing investigation. By then, detectives were dealing not with a single fatal robbery but with a moving series of incidents involving similar methods, the same general vehicle description and targets found in parking areas around prominent Las Vegas properties.
The sequence then shifted to Palace Station. Police said a woman was approached in the parking garage and robbed at gunpoint. Soon afterward, officers received another call from the property. Um had been shot in the garage. His wallet was missing, investigators said, and he was transported to University Medical Center, where he died. The Clark County coroner’s office later identified him and ruled his death a homicide. Unlike the Fashion Show shooting, the killing itself was not captured on the surveillance material described in later reporting, but video showed activity around the garage and the silver BMW associated with the investigation.
The two deaths occurred less than five hours apart. That compressed timeline shaped the way police and prosecutors described the case. Yamaguchi had been a visitor walking with her husband. Um happened to be in another parking garage later that day. Neither was described as having any prior connection to the defendants. Prosecutors said the violence grew from efforts to obtain money or property, not from disputes between the defendants and the people who died. Court filings later stated that the defendants came to Las Vegas to “make money” by robbing people during a crowded holiday period. The deaths, prosecutors argued, happened in the course of that plan.
The BMW eventually became central to the investigation. Police linked the car seen at multiple locations to the suspects, and the vehicle was later involved in a crash. Ruby and Carter were arrested soon afterward. Early charging documents did not yet contain the full case that would develop over the following weeks, but investigators continued tying incidents together. A Clark County grand jury ultimately indicted the men on 13 counts, including two counts of murder with a deadly weapon involving victims who were 60 or older, attempted murder, robbery, attempted robbery and conspiracy charges.
Both defendants initially pleaded not guilty, and prosecutors later announced that they intended to seek the death penalty. That decision dramatically raised the stakes of any eventual trial. The case then remained unresolved for several years as the defendants stayed in custody and prosecutors relied on evidence including surveillance recordings, DNA material and recorded communications. Ruby’s legal position changed in July 2026. He accepted a plea agreement and admitted guilt to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder before Jones. The deal replaced the possibility of a capital trial with an agreed sentencing framework that required decades in prison.
At his September sentencing, Ruby apologized. He told the court there was no adequate excuse for murder and said he regretted taking Yamaguchi away from her family. Prosecutor Marc DiGiacomo told Jones that Ruby had grown up during the years since his arrest and had shown significant remorse. The prosecutor contrasted him with Carter, whom he described as the leader of the crime spree. Jones ultimately imposed 35 years to life and gave Ruby credit for more than 1,000 days already served in the Clark County Detention Center.
The hearing also returned the focus from the map of crime scenes to the people who had been killed. Yamaguchi’s daughter told the court that her mother’s final experience included seeing Robert Yamaguchi fight desperately against the attacker. Robert Yamaguchi said afterward that he was disappointed with the sentence and wanted a harsher punishment. Prosecutors said Um did not have relatives available to address the court. Jones told those gathered that no sentence could remove the grief associated with the deaths, even as she expressed hope that the legal conclusion might provide some closure.
Carter also changed his plea after years of denying involvement. Soon after the arrests, he told a reporter that police had the wrong person and said his gambling status and expensive clothing meant he had no reason to steal. In 2026, however, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including murder charges connected to both Yamaguchi and Um and multiple robbery-related offenses. His agreement was reported to carry at least 50 years in prison and removed the death penalty from his case. He was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 8. A verified outcome from that hearing was not located among the sources reviewed for this report.
Ruby’s sentencing means his part of the criminal case now has a defined result: a minimum of 35 years in prison before the possibility of release. The broader sequence remains a record of how quickly separate robbery calls became linked into one of the city’s most serious holiday crime cases — beginning with property crimes, moving through multiple parking garages and ending with two unrelated victims dead before New Year’s Day arrived.
Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.