Las Vegas ‘Pimp’ Ammar Harris Sex Assault Sentencing Delayed
The Las Vegas “pimp,” or at least self-proclaimed pimp, who faces a possible death penalty trial later this year for a chaotic Las Vegas Strip shooting that ended up killing three people, will wait until February 26 to learn his sentence for an unrelated crime, the AP reports.
In September of last year Ammar Asim Faruq Harris, a self-described pimp who has bragged about his criminal activities on social media, was convicted of rape and robbery for a 2010 incident when he attacked a woman prosecutors said was one of Harris’ recruits into his prostitution operation on the Las Vegas Strip.
Except this woman, according to prosecutors, did not want to work for him.
So Harris first forced the woman, whose name was not made public, to perform an oral sex act on him and then he raped her in a shower, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal account of his trial.
Two weeks later prosecutors charged him, but Harris returned and attacked the woman again, this time choking her then robbing her of $600.
Though a jury found him guilty on the charges almost four months ago, Harris has still not faced sentencing. He is currently incarcerated as he awaits trial on the triple murder charge against him, however. Clark County District Judge Kathleen Delaney delayed Harris’ sentencing for the second time in two months, this time putting it off until February 26.
Harris had a falling out with his public defender after his trial on the sex assault charge. Attorneys Robert Langford and Thomas Ericsson were then appointed to represent Harris, and they say that before they can argue his case at a sentencing hearing, they need more time to catch up.
“If I was being sentenced, I would want my attorney to know what happened at my trial,” Langford told the judge, requesting a six-week delay, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Delaney granted the new extension, calling a six-week delay “not unreasonable.”
The attorneys said they were contemplating an appeal of the case. Harris told police that the woman he was convicted of assaulting was, in fact, the sexual aggressor in the situation and their sexual acts were consensual.
Harris, 27, faces a life sentence for the rape. But he could get the death penalty if he’s convicted later this year for the drive-by shooting that killed aspiring rapper and fellow suspected pimp Kenneth Cherry, who went by the alias Kenny Clutch.
Cherry was killed while driving on February 21 of last year, struck by bullets fired allegedly from Harris’s black Range Rover. As he was struck by the bullets, Cherry accelerated his vehicle, smashing into a taxicab. The driver of the cab and a passenger were both killed and five bystanders were injured in the Las Vegas mayhem.
