{"id":205035,"date":"2022-03-12T18:04:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T03:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=205035"},"modified":"2022-03-13T13:27:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T20:27:59","slug":"las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Strat Hotel Punch Leads to Assailant Getting Several Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A man will be spending between four and 10 years in prison for a deadly punch at The Strat Hotel, Casino &amp; SkyPod. The victim later passed away.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_205036\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-205036\" data-style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-205036\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saunders-142x80.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Saunders Strat Hotel punch death\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-205036\"class=\"text-description\">Michael Saunders in a mug shot, pictured above. He was sentenced to several years in prison for a fatal punch at The Strat. (Image: LVMPD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Michael Saunders was sentenced on Friday by District Judge Tierra Jones for the death last year of a 73-year-old man. The assault happened in the lobby of the Las Vegas casino-hotel, the <em>Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em> said. It took place at the check-in line.<\/p>\n<p>Initially, Saunders was charged with battery for the Aug. 27 incident. But the charge was upgraded to murder after the victim died from his injuries, the <em>Review-Journal<\/em> said. In December, he plead guilty to a reduced charge of voluntary manslaughter, the report said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The victim was identified as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fatal-punch-at-the-strat-leads-to-las-vegas-murder-charge-defendant-held-without-bail\/\">Thach Nguyen<\/a> of Springfield, Virginia. The punch led to a bleeding brain. Nguyen passed away on Sept. 8. An autopsy revealed he died from blunt force head trauma.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Apology for Incident<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Saunders expressed sorrow over the incident.\u00a0\u201cIt was a mistake. It was a travesty. It shouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d <\/strong>Saunders told the judge before the sentencing.<\/p>\n<p>The incident began when Saunders heard his fiancee say \u201cstop touching me\u201d and \u201cget away from me,\u201d the <em>Review-Journal <\/em>said. The woman was speaking to a man behind her in line at the check-in line.\u00a0Saunders then allegedly punched the victim.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"main-blockquote\"><p><strong>I just want to make very clear that this was not an intentional thing on (Saunders\u2019) behalf,\u201d<\/strong> Las Vegas Deputy Public Defender Lina Oraha said in court, the report said. <strong>\u201cHe\u2019s very sorry, and it was just a matter of a very bad decision that ended very tragically, not only for the victim but also for him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It was also revealed in court that Saunders\u2019 grandfather died on Aug. 26.\u00a0\u201cUnfortunately, what happened with his grandfather the night before had kind of clouded his judgment,\u201d Oraha said.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Review-Journal<\/em> also revealed that Saunders was convicted for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fatal-punch-at-the-strat-leads-to-las-vegas-murder-charge-defendant-held-without-bail\/\">domestic battery<\/a> in 2008, according to court records. That charge stemmed from an incident in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>Five years later, Saunders was convicted on burglary, kidnapping, and robbery charges. He was sentenced to between eight and 20 years for those charges, the <em>Review-Journal<\/em> said.<\/p>\n<h2>Apparent Suicide<\/h2>\n<p>The Strat has seen other violent incidents in recent months. In one unrelated incident, an unnamed man jumped to his death in September from the top of The Strat. It was an apparent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/strat-hotel-jumper-likely-committed-suicide-nevada-coroner-reveals\/\">suicide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>He was a 30-year-old resident of Henderson, Nev., the <em>Review-Journal<\/em> said.\u00a0It appeared he landed near a ground-level entranceway close to a sidewalk along Las Vegas Boulevard, according to <em>Vital Vegas<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Metro police did not provide a reason for him jumping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A man will be spending between four and 10 years in prison for a deadly punch at The Strat Hotel, Casino &amp; SkyPod. The victim later passed away. Michael Saunders was sentenced on Friday by District Judge Tierra Jones for the death last year of a 73-year-old man. The assault happened in the lobby of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":205036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Strat Hotel Punch Leads to Assailant Getting Several Years in Prison<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Las Vegas man will be spending between four and 10 years in prison for a deadly punch at The Strat Hotel. 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The victim later passed away.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-13T02:04:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-13T20:27:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saunders.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1015\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"571\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgedsilv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/\",\"name\":\"Strat Hotel Punch Leads to Assailant Getting Several Years in Prison\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-strat-hotel-punch-leads-to-assailant-getting-several-years-in-prison\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Saunders.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-13T02:04:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-03-13T20:27:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\"},\"description\":\"A Las Vegas man will be spending between four and 10 years in prison for a deadly punch at The Strat Hotel. 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