Vegas Strip shooting defendant guilty in rape case

Las Vegas • A man who once bragged about his lifestyle as a pimp was found guilty Friday of rape and robbery in a case that served as a prelude to his upcoming capital murder trial in the deaths of three people in a February shooting and explosion on the Las Vegas Strip.

A jury of six women and six men deliberated less than two hours before finding 27-year-old Ammar Asim Faruq Harris guilty of four felonies in a June 2010 attack on an 18-year-old woman in the shower of a condominium off the Las Vegas Strip.

Harris gave no reaction as the verdict was read in Clark County District Court, or when prosecutor David Stanton informed the judge the convictions would serve as aggravating factors in Harris' death penalty trial, scheduled to begin Dec. 2.

Harris could face 10 years to life in prison on each of the three sex assault convictions, and two to 15 years for robbery.

Harris' defense attorneys maintained the sex with the woman was consensual and pointed to Harris' statement to police that the woman and a friend chose him as their pimp.

The woman, a nude dancer at a club, went home to San Antonio, Texas, days after the attack and didn't report it to police until much later.

Defense attorney David Schieck noted that the woman returned to Las Vegas within weeks and remained in social media contact with Harris. Schieck told the jury that Harris wasn't on trial for pimping or pandering charges.

Charges in the case were initially dropped after the woman moved back to Texas. The case was resurrected after the Strip shooting and crash, when the woman returned to Las Vegas and testified before a grand jury.