In Las Vegas, Jordan Ruby apologized in court as Clarice Yamaguchi’s family described a loss that no prison term could undo.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — A Nevada judge sentenced Jordan Ruby to 35 years to life in prison for his role in a New Year’s Eve robbery spree that killed 66-year-old Hawaii visitor Clarice Yamaguchi, closing one part of a case that began with a sudden confrontation in a Las Vegas Strip parking garage nearly five years earlier.

Chief District Judge Tierra Jones imposed the sentence Sept. 24 after hearing from Ruby, prosecutors and Yamaguchi’s family. Ruby, now 22, had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder as part of an agreement that removed the possibility that prosecutors would seek his execution. The hearing did more than settle the length of his prison term. It placed two sharply different realities in the same courtroom: Ruby’s assertion that he had changed since his arrest as a teenager and a family’s account of harm that cannot be reversed by remorse, rehabilitation or the passage of time.

Ruby told the court there was no excuse for taking part in conduct that ended a life. He said he should never have been there and apologized for taking Yamaguchi away from the people who loved her. Prosecutors also acknowledged that Ruby had changed during the years he had been held at the Clark County Detention Center. Chief Deputy District Attorney Marc DiGiacomo told the judge that Ruby had shown significant remorse and described him as a substantially different defendant from co-defendant Jesani Carter. Ruby received credit for more than 1,000 days already spent in custody. Those considerations, however, did not erase the prosecution’s account of how the violence began or what followed it.

For Yamaguchi’s relatives, the sentencing returned attention to Dec. 31, 2021. Yamaguchi, of Waipahu, Hawaii, was visiting Las Vegas with her husband, Robert Yamaguchi. The couple had been at Fashion Show mall and were heading through a parking garage when a silver BMW approached. Investigators said a man got out and tried to take Clarice Yamaguchi’s purse. Her husband rushed to help her and fought with the robber. During the struggle, a shot was fired and Yamaguchi was struck. She was taken to University Medical Center, where she died. Surveillance video later presented in the case documented the confrontation and the vehicle leaving the garage.

At Ruby’s sentencing, Yamaguchi’s daughter focused not on the value of the property that was being taken but on what her mother saw during the final confrontation. She said her father had fought with everything he had to protect his wife. Robert Yamaguchi told reporters after the hearing that he was disappointed with the punishment and had wanted a death sentence. Jones acknowledged that a prison term could not eliminate the family’s grief. The judge said that regardless of the sentence, the loss would remain, while expressing hope that the proceeding might provide some measure of closure. The comments underscored the narrow role a sentencing hearing can play after a homicide: it determines legal punishment, but it cannot restore the person who was killed.

The shooting at Fashion Show mall was not treated by police as an isolated robbery. Investigators said it was one event in a series of crimes spanning Dec. 30 and 31, 2021. Authorities connected Ruby and Carter to another robbery at Wynn Las Vegas the day before Yamaguchi was killed. After the Fashion Show shooting, investigators said the men moved through other casino properties. At Sahara Las Vegas, an employee reported that someone tried to steal his backpack and fired at him as he ran away. Police then traced the silver BMW to Palace Station, where another woman was robbed at gunpoint in a parking garage.

The most serious violence after Yamaguchi’s death came at Palace Station. Police said 60-year-old Hyo Sup Um was confronted in the garage, his wallet was taken and he was shot. Um was transported to University Medical Center and later died. Prosecutors said no relatives were available to give a statement on his behalf at Ruby’s sentencing. The absence of a family speaker did not lessen Um’s place in the case. His killing helped turn what had begun as a series of robbery allegations into a prosecution involving two deaths, attempted murder and multiple armed robberies. Investigators said Ruby and Carter left the area in the BMW and were arrested after the vehicle later crashed.

The prosecution eventually built its case from several kinds of evidence. Surveillance footage documented portions of the alleged robbery sequence, including the attack at Fashion Show and a robbery at Wynn. Investigators tied the BMW to the defendants, and grand jury material later included DNA evidence and recorded communications. Prosecutors also cited a jail telephone call in which Ruby was said to have acknowledged coming to Las Vegas to rob people around New Year’s. DiGiacomo wrote in court filings that the defendants had traveled to the city on one of its busiest days to make money by robbing people in the tourist corridor. The government’s theory was that the deaths occurred during that planned series of property crimes rather than during unrelated encounters.

The legal stakes were initially even higher. Ruby and Carter were indicted in 2022 on charges that included two murder counts, attempted murder, robbery and conspiracy allegations, and prosecutors announced plans to seek the death penalty. Both men originally pleaded not guilty. The prosecution remained pending for years before plea negotiations changed its course in 2026. Ruby accepted his agreement on July 30, pleading guilty before Jones to first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon and attempted murder. The agreement established a minimum punishment that ultimately became the 35-years-to-life sentence imposed in September and eliminated the uncertainty of a capital trial.

Carter’s path through the case has been different. He pleaded guilty to 13 counts, including murder charges connected to the deaths of Yamaguchi and Um and robbery-related offenses. His plea agreement was reported to carry a minimum of 50 years in prison while also taking the death penalty off the table. Soon after his 2022 arrest, Carter publicly denied participating in the crimes and told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that police had arrested the wrong person. He pointed to his gambling and expensive clothing as reasons he would not need to rob anyone. His later guilty pleas represented a major departure from those early statements.

Ruby’s sentence also highlighted a distinction prosecutors chose to make between the defendants. Although both were accused in the same broad crime spree, DiGiacomo told the court that Ruby had matured while in custody and had shown remorse. He characterized Carter as the leader of the series of crimes. That assessment did not absolve Ruby of responsibility; he still received a sentence requiring decades in prison before any possibility of release. Instead, it helped explain why prosecutors could acknowledge personal change while continuing to describe the underlying conduct as a serious and sustained threat to people who happened to be in Las Vegas parking garages during a holiday weekend.

Nearly five years separated Yamaguchi’s death from Ruby’s sentencing. During that period, the case moved from arrests and no-bail hearings to a grand jury indictment, a potential death-penalty prosecution and finally negotiated guilty pleas. The passage of time changed Ruby’s age and legal posture, but not the central facts confronting the court: Yamaguchi died during an attempted robbery while her husband tried to protect her, and Um died later during the same series of crimes. Jones’ sentence resolved Ruby’s criminal case by setting a 35-year minimum term before he can be considered for release.

Carter had been scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 8 under his separate plea agreement. The sources reviewed for this report establish that scheduled hearing and his guilty pleas but did not provide a verified later sentencing outcome. Ruby, meanwhile, is serving the 35-years-to-life sentence imposed by Jones, leaving his apology and the family’s statements as the final courtroom record of a proceeding in which punishment was determined but the losses remained permanent.

Author note: Last updated Nov. 9, 2026.