Judge: Venue change unlikely in sex assault trial of Ammar Harris

A Nevada judge said Monday it was unlikely that she’ll grant a change of venue for the sex assault trial next month of a self-described pimp who faces a death penalty trial in a separate case accusing him of killing three people in a shooting and fiery crash on the Las Vegas Strip.

Ammar Asim Faruq Harris stood shackled in a courtroom, wearing orange mitts on his hands and flanked by three jail special weapons team officers, while Clark County District Court Judge Kathleen Delaney said she believed a panel of jurors can be found for his trial on felony sex assault and robbery charges stemming from allegations that Harris raped a woman in 2010.

Harris, 27, has pleaded not guilty in the case. He faces trial July 8 on charges that could get him life in prison if convicted.

Harris faces a separate death penalty trial in September stemming from the Feb. 21 shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that fatally wounded a man driving a Maserati that then slammed into a taxi, killing two people in an explosive fireball.

Officer Larry Hadfield, a Las Vegas police spokesman, said jail officials put the mitts on Harris’ hands as a precaution to prevent him from grabbing items while being moved between the Clark County jail and the courtroom.

Harris’ court-appointed public defense attorney, Monica Trujillo, argued that Harris can’t get a fair trial because jurors will come to court with opinions shaped by media reports of the case and postings of Harris’ face on freeway billboards during the intense weeklong manhunt before he was taken into custody Feb. 28 in Los Angeles.

Trujillo also cited Harris’ self-styled Internet video in which he fans a thick stack of $100 bills and boasts about life as a pimp, luxury cars, prostitutes and living in a house full of women who are all paying him.

“I think this has absolutely been sensationalized,” Trujillo said.

Records show Harris was never convicted of pimping. But Las Vegas police initially sought charges of pandering by force and felon in possession of concealed weapon in the 2010 sex assault case. Charges were dropped when the alleged victim refused to testify. The case was resurrected when the woman re-emerged after the Strip carnage and testified before a grand jury in Las Vegas.

Harris was previously convicted in South Carolina in 2004 of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol, and convicted in Atlanta of a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.

Delaney rejected as premature Trujillo’s call to move the upcoming sex assault trial to another city. The judge said she wants to try to seat a jury first.

Delaney also rejected Trujillo’s call for charges to be dismissed because prosecutors failed to preserve and turn over to the defense cellphones and records of text messages from 2010 that Trujillo said might have cleared Harris.

Prosecutor David Stanton said there was no requirement for the state to impound and preserve evidence from two years ago.

The judge declined to make an immediate ruling on a defense request to have prospective jurors fill out questionnaires and have people questioned individually behind closed doors during jury selection.

A conviction in the sex assault case would let prosecutors cite it for a jury during death penalty deliberations if the panel first finds Harris guilty in the Strip shooting and crash.

Tourists compared the early Feb. 21 carnage to a Hollywood action film.

The Maserati driver, 27-year-old Kenneth Cherry Jr., died at a hospital. Cab driver Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi fireball.

Another man in the Maserati suffered gunshot wounds and survived. Five other people in several other vehicles suffered lesser injuries.

Police said Harris and Cherry exchanged angry words at a casino valet stand minutes before the shooting on the neon-lit Strip. Investigators found no gun in the Maserati and no evidence that Cherry returned fire before crashing.