01x01 - Sin City Clickbait

[bunniefuu]

[dramatic music playing]

[Brent] Toochi Kash
is the closest thing

Las Vegas has
to a mega influencer.

[Duke] She's internationally
known.

I would consider her
a souped-up Veyron Bugatti

with all the options
and amenities.

[Brent] And then,
you get Tia Evans.

[Tia] There was definitely
a draw to the world.

I mean the money, the fame,
the parties.

All shiny.

[Brent] A guy like
Ash Armand...

Today, I'm gonna be doing
a 20-minute
expl*sive sexercise.

[Brent] And these influencers
are feeding off of

the back drop of Las Vegas.

Sex, clubbing, drugs.

Somebody's gonna be able
to provide it for you.

That's Vegas' ideology.

We learnt from you, bro.

[Brent] What you end up with
is a really dangerous
c*ck.

[Duke] Vegas has a lot of
hidden people that
are running from something.

[Brent] You gotta really be on
your A-game or you'll just be
get eaten by the sharks.

[opening theme music playing]

[instrumental music playing]

[Garren] It's 2011 and I was
very actively searching
for new men

for my website,
Cowboys4Angels.

A male companion agency
for women.

We're considered the best
of the best.

We want to give you
the perfect boyfriend
experience

with just,
no strings attached.

One of the websites that
we used was Model Mayhem
to find men.

So, I'm scrolling through
Model Mayhem

and I basically just stopped.

I was looking
for Ken dolls,

and all of a sudden
I found like a Fabio.

And it was Akshaya Kubiak.

His look was so unique.

So different from the men
that I represented
at the time.

He had long luscious hair.

And his profile also said that

"Akshaya has worked
as an international male model
most of his life.

He is now specializing
in the art of massage."

I knew I really wanted
to work with him.

So, I sent him a DM

and within a day he responded.

I drove down to Miami
and we conducted
our first interview.

I remember him walking up
and I was just

really blown away
by his presence.

His whole vibe
and personality was

very zen and very calming.

And I thought he was gonna be
amazing with clients.

And so, we went ahead
and set him up on a contract
with our agency.

[Garren] I remember when I got
his picture, I was like,

"Holy crap.

He is gonna make
a lot of money."

Akshaya's career
with Cowboys4Angels
took off very fast.

[notifications chiming]

His reviews were phenomenal.

Couple years down the road,
he was doing so well

that it was time for me
to put him into the limelight.

At the time, I worked
as the creative consultant
as well

for the show, Gigolos,

a reality TV show on Showtime
filmed in Las Vegas.

And that's a place
where I was able
to showcase my best men.

[narrator] Showtime presents
a new reality series

about the hardest working men
in Vegas.

Late night. Redefined.

Each person had a character
or persona.

Nick Hawk was the bad boy.

We had Brace who was
the elegant gentleman.

Then, we had Vin Armani
who was the intellectual type.

And every season they wanna
introduce a new Cowboy.

In August of 2012,
when the Gigolos show

premiered Season Three.
Akshaya became...

[narrator] Ash...

My name is Ash Armand, uh,
I'm a gigolo.

Ash Armand,
the spiritual zen warrior.

You're so sensual and sexy.

Think you have to clear
your schedule.

He's compassionate and loving.

[Ash] So, I was born
in India,

uh, my mother's Indian
and my dad's American.

I grew up in Japan.

[narrator] What is the secret
to being a good Gigolo?

[Ash] To succeed
in the business,
you shouldn't be

a self-centered,
egoistic person.

He just said, you shouldn't be
a self-centered,
egotistical person.

And he wasn't.

[narrator] What do you
get out of it?

I genuinely look at it as
almost like
a healing experience.

[Ash] Oh, wow.

Sometimes, people like,
break down and cry

'cause you touched them
in a way that they've
never been touched before.

So, it's just really,
giving them a lasting memory.

[Garren] Armand became a hit

with the viewers
and with booking appointments.

[Brent] First time, I watched
any of Gigolos

I was like, "Wait,
what now?"

First off, there's a show,
it's in Las Vegas,

it's about male escorts.

I was intrigued
by the whole phenomena.

You know, sex work
has a lot of stigmas.

Being on TV for sex work

is gonna bring a lot of
the stigmas
to your front door.

But, Ash definitely wanted
to be seen and known.

Right around the time that
Ash was in the Gigolos show,

social media was taking off.

[Brent] When Ash starts
his run on Gigolos in 2012,

Instagram is just
getting started
and it grows from

of that year

to 100 million
by the end of 2012.

[Garren] You get that big boom
of influencers

and becoming
a social media star.

You no longer had to be
a A-list actor
to have followers.

[Brent] Social media
influencers
become an entire livelihood

an entire business,
an entire industry.

Ash is at this perfect
little moment

where he can really
become an influencer.

He launches
his first Facebook page.

By July of 2012, he's got
his Instagram page up.

And he's producing content,

these hypersexualized images
of him

to try and build himself up
as a brand.

It was just a big expl*si*n
and it all happened at once.

The Gigolos show was a hit.

Cowboys4Angels was booming.

Social media was exploding.

So, Ash started to open up
more social medias.

I'm Ash Armand,

today we're gonna be doing
a 20-minute expl*sive
sexercise.

So, get ready.

[Brent] The description
of Ash's new channel

tells you pretty much
everything you need to know.

[reading] "Welcome
to my channel,

designed so you can ask me
questions about sensuality,

sexuality, fitness, nutrition,
and spirituality."

When I started juicing,

I really believed in many way
that it's better than Viagra

for sexually activating
yourself.

[mouse clicking sound]

"My purpose is to bring
connected sexuality

to the mainstream
by creating a database

of educational sexual
material."

[Ash] We're gonna start
with a 3-minute jump rope
warm-up.

And then, we're gonna do
hip opening stretches.

And then, we're gonna move
into our exercise.

"Look forward
to empowering you
on your journey

to sexual mastery."

It's a success.
The approach works.

He starts accumulating
tens and thousands
of followers

on Facebook, on Instagram.

He's got thousands
and thousands of followers
on YouTube

watching his videos.

The name, Ash Armand
is now a brand.

[captivating instrumental
music playing]

[Brent] Ash is getting
all these attention

while feeding off of
the back drop
of Las Vegas.

Las Vegas is a town
of status.

And you can have status
through fame,

money,
or a social media presence.

So, if someone had
a lot of followers,

they are more important.

They get invited
to better clubs.

They don't have to pay
for things

because they'll post about it
on their social media.

That way, someone can say,

"I saw Ash Armand
in the club."

So, having a strong Instagram
in Las Vegas

is like having a credit card.

[Brent] Las Vegas
is about showing,

it's a perfect back drop

for someone to show
a lifestyle of leisure
or opulence.

It's a city that's built
to please.

A city that would give you
any kind of
pleasure you desire.

Any kind of indulgence
you desire.

Sex, clubbing, drugs.

Somebody's gonna be able
to provide it for you

and that's Vegas' ideology.

[crowd chattering]

So, Ash is gonna
be expected to participate
and indulge.

We learnt from you, bro.

[Brent] And that's
gonna create
some habitual behavior.

It's the culture.

[Brent] By the middle of 2014,

Ash has been on Gigolos
for three seasons.

And he's become
a real fan favorite.

So much gratitude
to all of you following me

and all the likes and people
who have been supporting me

from day one.

[Brent] The success
of all his digital platforms

translating to
his pocket book.

He's making more money.

He's also become more
and more entrenched

in the Las Vegas
night life scene.

[Garren] At that point,
he started to date

one of the most
beautiful girls in Las Vegas.

And it was Toochi Kash.

He was so proud.

I know Toochi for many years

because she's dated
several of the man
that I represent.

She really likes

really handsome men.

[Brent] Toochi Kash
is the closest thing

Las Vegas has
to a mega influencer.

[Duke] She's
internationally known.

Dating Toochi makes you feel
like a million dollars.

Seeing any pictures of Toochi,
I would consider her

a souped-up Veyron Bugatti
with all the options
and amenities.

You can't go wrong, you know.

But you gonna pay the cost
to be the boss.

Toochi Kash
was one of my friends.

She took Instagram pictures

before any of that was like,
really popular.

I've definitely looked up
to Toochi.

There is definitely a draw
to the world,

I mean, the money,
the fame,

the parties, big houses,
the nice cars.

It's all shiny.

My first time getting posted
by Toochi Kash,

I made 10 thousand followers
overnight.

And was like, "Wow."

It was really cool.
I just didn't expect it.

It's a good feeling though.

Makes you feel confident,
it made me feel pretty.

I kind of start to wonder,
like,

"Hmm. Maybe I should
be making money from this."

[Garren] Toochi Kash has such
a strong Instagram presence.

She was more of
and A-lister than him.

But those two together,

they were definitely
a Vegas power couple.

[intense music playing]

[Garren] So, we have
this combination of fame,

money,

drugs,

social media in Las Vegas.

[Duke] And what you
end up with

is a really
dangerous c*ck.

I've been around K*llers
and drug dealers

for most of my, uh,
upbringing.

Vegas has a lot of
hidden people

that are running
from something.

[Tia] I think, eventually,
you're in Vegas for too long,

it can eat you alive.

[notification chimes]

[Garren] Thinking back
to that day,

I just pictured someone
being angry in texts.

So, I really didn't take
those threats seriously.

But I think this period
for Ash was a really
tough time.

He didn't have Toochi anymore.

[Garren] And then Showtime
did not renew the show.

His feelings about who he is,

and what he's capable of,
and what he's worth

are attached in a lot of
different ways to

the celebrity,
the relationship,

the growth he experienced
with Toochi.

[Duke] Life is not the same.

You know, the finances aren't
the same.

The lifestyle isn't the same.

The treatment that you get
as a person isn't the same.

[Brent] He starts
partying more,

he starts taking more drugs,

he starts going
kind of wild.

So, he's on a real fall,

and it's trickling now
into his brand.

[Garren] His priority
with the agency

just didn't seem as important.

He started to turn away
clients.

I was getting very frustrated.

We ended up terminating
his relationship
with Cowboys4Angels.

[Garren] And he was like,

"What? I'm Ash Armand,
you can't let go of me."

And I was like,
"You know what? I made you.

I made Ash Armand.

I don't want to work
with you anymore.

And you can go be your own
Ash Armand."

And I remember him
telling me,

"Fine, I'm gonna go
start my agency."

He wrote on his Instagram,

"Ash Armand Male Companions."

I really didn't wish him
any harm.

I just wished
that he would get some help.

[Brent] For this point,
Ash is in the back end
of his 30s.

And he's got a lot of
competition.

Younger influencers and...

and escorts that
are coming onto the scene.

Under that pressure
to appear fit,

to maintain his body,
to maintain appearances,

he starts taking steroids.

He's pushing himself
physically in a way that's

obviously unhealthy.

Posting more and more
provocative images
of himself online,

and they're really
getting saucy...

...semi-pornographic
to try and keep an edge,

to keep attention on himself.

He's getting comments
from women fans...

They preferred his body
before he started
taking steroids.

It seems like there's a real
crisis going on with him.

And it's trickling down
into his brand.

At some point,
Ash begins to walk towards
a moment of clarity.

And one thing I've been
thinking a lot lately,

especially, like,
living in a place like Vegas,

I know, like,
lot of people wanna
deny their demons.

I just believe everybody
has demons and there's things
that we're dealing with.

It's like
you can't judge that,

but it's more like
using it as your ally.

Find the outlets where
you can express that instead
of trying to suppress it.

He realizes that
modelling, sex work

is something that
he's aging out of.

He starts to try
and rediscover
and reinvent his identity,

who he is.

Also around this time,
Ash starts dating
a woman named Tia Evans.

[Tia]
When I first met Ash,

it was when he was
still dating Toochi Kash.

I just thought,
"Wow, he is something."

He is stunning!
And, obviously, you know,

you can look
but you can't touch.

But then after they broke up,

I just asked if he wanted
to have a drink with me.

And he said, "Yes."

We went on our first date
at the Hookah Lounge,

and we're, like, sitting
across from each other.

And in front of the whole bar
he, like, reached across
the table and kissed me

in front of everybody.
And I was like, "Oh, my God.

Wow! That's very magical."

I was definitely, totally
in love with him

from the first month
I was with him.

He would make me tea
every single morning,

he would give me massages
to bed, I mean...

He was a great,
he was a great boyfriend.

Eventually, he said that,
"We see each other
every night anyways.

You might as well
just move your stuff here."

And so I did.

One night we started talking
and I'm like, you know,

"Eventually you're gonna
have to stop being a gigolo.

"Like, what would you
wanna do?"

And he told me that he had
been a massage therapist
for 10 years.

And he was amazing
with his hands.

He could make
any pain go away.

You could feel just
this energetic type of touch.

He had healing hands.

He'd practice, like, reiki,
and, like, other, like,
energy healing.

And he said that
he felt like he wanted
to go back to doing it,

back to healing.

We were taking
about mushrooms,

and we watched
Fantastic Fungi.

It said that
you rebuild your brain cells

that reconnects
certain pathways.

And I think that was
really exciting for him.

He wanted to start
microdosing and experimenting
a little bit.

He would talk about
mushroom ceremonies.

How it helps you
get through things
in your mind,

helping through trauma,
and, um, depression.

I think that
that was exciting...

to know that he could
potentially heal other people.

And then May, 2020,

Ash got a message
from a new potential client,

and her name was Herleen.

She sent him a deposit.

And he said he looked up
the apartment,

looked like it was legit.

Asked me if I think
that he should go,

and I said, "Yeah.
Seems legit to me."

That's when everything

started to fall apart.

As Ash is having his,
kind of, spiritual rebirth,

or at least spiritual rebrand,

he ends up connecting
with Herleen.

[Ace Smith]
So that's me.

That's Herleen.

We're just pointing
to the sky, just pointing...

to the direction
that we was always
trying to go.

Right to the top.

And we always knew
that we was gonna
go there together.

I opened A.C.E. Fitness
in 2015.

And A.C.E. stood for
the ability to
conquer everything.

It was a woman-empowerment
type of gym.

They used to call me
the booty-builder.

So my main thing was,
I had a specialty of,
like, building the butt.

Social media
was everything for use.

That's how we booked
our business.

Herleen joined the gym
in the beginning of 2018.

She was 26-years-old.

She was very quiet,

uh, standoffish, she was
unconfident in herself.

She spoke a lot
about this dark place
that she was in.

She came to Vegas,
I believe, to...

try and find herself,
to clear her mind,
and become something more,

and just build
that overall confidence.

And that the gym really
brought out the best in her.

This is her transformation.

She lost 40 pounds
in a month.

[woman] How're you
feeling, Herleen?

[woman 2 cheering]

I feel like...

[man speaking indistinctly]

And her body
started to transform.

You could definitely tell
a big difference in
her overall confidence.

[all chuckling]

We were like a family.

We spoke openly
about everything,

and then one day,
at one of our meetings...

She just broke out and told us
that she was battling cancer
this whole time.

She was having bad migraines.

She would go inside
of a dark room,
and she'd close the doors,

turn the lights off,
and she would
just lay in there.

And you could just tell
that she was really
going through it.

I didn't know her
to have a lot of friends
outside of the gym.

Most of her relationships,
and, and friendships
that she built was...

coming from the gym.

[Brent] Herleen's come-up
only lasts so long.

Eventually she spirals back.

She leaves the gym.

She starts gaining
weight again,

becomes more anxious
and isolated.

At this point,
Herleen and Ash connect.

[Tia] She said this to him.

Anytime she would
try to get something done,

or something good
was gonna happen,

there would be, like,
some kind of dark energy
that would just...

diminish everything
around her.

They went for
a spiritual retreat to Zion.

Apparently it was amazing
epiphany of sorts
that they both had.

She figured out what it was,
the darkness was,

and he figured out
that he wanted to be
able to heal, and...

hearing it from someone
telling him, like,
you are a healer...

I definitely think
that Ash felt like
he could help her.

They were getting close.

And, of course,
jealousy plays a part.

He said that they decided
that they weren't going to...

have any kind of
romantic relationship,

and that it was just
gonna be solely on healing.

I mean, you know
how women are.
Like, we don't...

believe the first thing
that's always said to us.

Around that time,
Ash became a little more
irrational than normal.

The way he held himself
and the way he talked
started making me worry

about him mentally.

[Brent] By this point,

Ash has four or five
years of on again,
off again substance use,

experimenting with massive
dosses of mushrooms.

He's still doing steroids.

So you're mixing up
a really dangerous c*ck.

One night he'd said
that he was having
really bad dreams.

He was having
the worst tremors.

His whole body
was like shaking.

He told me that the devil
was trying to disguise himself
as his loved ones

to try to take him
to the underworld.

His energy
was all over the place.

I just had a weird feeling

that something bad
was gonna happen.

Out of nowhere
I get, a, like a hostile
message from him...

Where is this coming from?
It was just so left field.

I did not recognize this
person I was talking to
on the phone anymore.

It did not sound
like him at all.

He said, "Your whole life
is gonna fall down
around you, Tia."

And I'm like,
"Wait, what did you say?

Why would you
say that to me?"

And I'm like,
"Whatever, I'm done."

And blocked him
on my social media,

and I blocked him
on my phone.

When we talk about
Ash and his instability,

he's starting to show
that he is...
not this enlightened healer,

and getting into a fight,
getting into an argument,

which tells you that
maybe he really did have
that on mask for a while.

But that mask is slipping,
that persona is falling away.

[Garren]
I think that when you look
at Ash's relationships,

I don't think Ash ever
really got over Toochi Kash.

Every relationship
after Toochi

was just a struggle for Ash
trying to compare
what he had...

and he was still very
angry with the men
that she dated...

I was in the gym
working out with John,
creating video content

for his Instagram feed...

I received a text message
from Ash...

Told him I'm ready to fight.

[dispatcher speaking]

[Ash speaking]

[dispatcher speaking]

[Ash speaking]

[policeman speaking]

[man] Okay.

[policeman continues speaking]

[man] Okay.

[policeman speaking]

[Duke] On July 16th,
I received
a text message from Rex.

He said,
"Ash, he finally popped."

I was like, "Damn!"

Hey, brother. What's your,
uh, what you last name
real quick?

-Yeah, K-U...
-K-U...

-B, as in boy...
-B?

-B, yeah, B.
-Uh-huh.

I-A-K.

[Duke] The news,
it said that he has
k*lled his girlfriend.

I didn't know
who the person was.
I assumed it was Tia.

[Tia] I had,
on social media alone,

probably 200, 300 messages.

Getting phone calls like,
"Are you alive?"

Not just some of
the city that I was in,

most of the whole city did.

I reached out to a couple
of other friends
that are in the circle,

and they explained
that it was a client.

And I said, "A client?"
I said, "It doesn't
even sound right."

[Ace] I got a call
from one of our trainers.

She was just hysterical
on the, on the phone,
and she...

told me somebody
k*lled Herleen.

And I didn't believe it.

So I ended up
just looking it up myself.

For sure it was
Herleen Dulai...

...beaten to death.

[Brent] This is what we know.

At 10:20 a.m.,
on the morning of July 16th,

Ash Armand called 911.

[Ash speaking]

[dispatcher] Okay.

[Brent] Ash claims
this was an accident.

An accidental m*rder
due to mushrooms
would be...

I knocked her down
a flight of stairs,

I freaked out,
and pushed her.

And she hit her head.

But not what Ash did.

And the autopsy report
is particularly brutal...

when you...

look at how much
physical damage...

was done to Herleen's body.

The cause of death
is blunt force trauma.

There's...

repeated blows to the body,

there is pulverization
of the jaw,

teeth fragments
found in the stomach.

During the investigation,

Las Vegas Metropolitan
Police Department detectives

observed a packed suitcase
covered with candle wax,

candle wax on
the victim's hair and body.

Detectives observed blood
inside the washing machine.

Detectives also found
watered down, or diluted
blood in the bathroom.

So at some point...

he attempted
to clean up this mess.

And then,
a moment later on

where he decides
to call the police
and then turn himself in.

That doesn't seem,
one, accidental,

and two, like the actions
of somebody that was...

on a hallucinogenic
spiritual journey.

I... was in complete shock.

[producer speaking]

No. Not at all.

I don't think it really
all hit me

until later on,
when I was thinking,
it could've been me.

It could have been me.

[Duke] Once I read
what I read,

that he beat her
to senseless with his hands,
like a barbarian.

I was like,
what the hell went
through your mind?

What made you go
into the depths of that hell
to do that to somebody?

In Vegas, if you have problems
controlling your desires,

this place will eat you alive.

[Brent]
The contributing factors,
whether it was...

pent up aggression
from living an increasingly
frustrated life,

challenges to his emotional
and psychological wellbeing,

the Instagram
likes and clicks,

semi-recreational
steroid usage,

hallucinogenic drugs
and other
mind-altering substances...

Can't pinpoint
any one of those things

and say, "That's it.
That's the thing
that made it happen."

It's a whole bunch of things.

This is a guy riding...

on a downward spiral.

She was keeping,
whether she knew it or not,
dangerous company.

[Garren] These are the...

fans in shock.

"What the [bleep]?"

"How could
such a man do this?"

"Are they high or what?"

"He came across as the most
caring, gentle, happy guy.
Not a k*ller."

Reading these comments
you can see that
even his followers...

just like his friends,
they're in shock.

I mean, here's a person
that they followed, who had
this kind, loving persona...

who, all of a sudden
is in jail for m*rder.

Obviously, I played
a part in creating
that image for him.

I know that I didn't
intend for his character

to become that person,
but it did.

I do take it personally...

...um, because if I wouldn't
have met him,

he wouldn't have
been in Las Vegas.

[Ace] Herleen's last words,

"Keep growing and keep shining
and don't let life
make you hard."

There's nothing
that she wouldn't do for you.

There's nothing that
you couldn't talk to her
about, and...

the sweetest, sweetest soul.

And her hugs was
just infectious, like...

She would hug you
and just hold you
for a long time.

Like, this is what
you needed. [chuckles]

Whether it's a workout,
whether it's in life,

just make sure
you keep pushing 'cause
that's all that matters...

is that you keep
leveling up.

Because if you stay
in the comfort zone,
your dreams are gonna die.

Everything goes to [bleep].

[all laughing]

So keep growing,
keep leveling up.

And we're here for you
to help you, push you.

[all applauding]

Like you couldn't
be mad at her.

Couldn't be mad
at her for sure.

[Garren]
I honestly don't think
this would've ever happened

if it wasn't this dangerous
combination of social media,

added with fame,

added with the lifestyle,

and then all of the drugs.

[Ace] You mix that
with emotions,

substances with rage and...

you get Ash.

♪♪

Hey guys,
welcome to my channel.

When influencers share
posts everyday

they're building a community.

She was one of the first
influencers.

She modernized her culture.

She knew she had a purpose
and that was to help people.

But, it can get very toxic
very quickly.

Please, keep watching.

[ding]

One of the dangers of social
media is not knowing

who is behind these accounts

or what they're
truly capable of.

Is your name Bianca?

No matter how much you know
someone online

you only see a certain part
of them.

She'd like to report her
daughter as missing.

Question was is she tied up
somewhere and still alive?

She might be stuck,
trapped, being held.

It is driving you crazy
until you snap.

That's when we realized we're
not just looking for a k*ller.

We're dealing with
something evil here.

This place will eat you alive.

[siren wailing]