Ash Armand, Showtime’s Gigolos: Murder Case and Failed Appeal

Ash Armand, the stage name of former Showtime Gigolos cast member Akshaya Kubiak, pleaded guilty in 2021 to voluntary manslaughter and mayhem for beating 29-year-old Herleen Dulai to death at his Las Vegas home in July 2020. He was sentenced to eight to 20 years in Nevada prison and, as of mid-2026, remains incarcerated at High Desert State Prison.¹

What Happened at the Las Vegas House

On the morning of July 16, 2020, Kubiak called 911 from his home on the 8400 block of Blackstone Ridge Court and told the dispatcher his friend Herleen Dulai was unconscious from what he described as a heart attack.² He performed CPR while the dispatcher coached him. Paramedics found no evidence of a heart attack. The arrest report described Dulai as “obviously deceased” and noted blood spattered around the room.¹

According to a grand jury indictment, Kubiak told paramedics at the scene, “When the police get here, I’ll surrender.”¹ Las Vegas Metropolitan Police later said detectives believed Kubiak had been under the influence of narcotics and had beaten Dulai to death.³

The Clark County coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide, listing blunt force trauma as the cause and strangulation as a contributing factor.⁴ Prosecutors cited trauma to Dulai’s face, eyes, shoulders, and forearms, and a chipped tooth found in her stomach.² Investigators also found signs that someone had tried to clean the scene, including watered-down bloodstains and bloody clothing loaded into a washing machine.⁵

Who Herleen Dulai Was

Herleen Kaur Dulai was born in Northern California, the youngest of three children of parents who had emigrated from India. Her father worked as an aerospace engineer, and her mother held two master’s degrees.⁵ She graduated from Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and moved to Las Vegas in 2017 to pursue a post-baccalaureate degree. She worked as a personal trainer and led a youth group in the city.¹

Her relationship with Kubiak was disputed. Initial police reports described the two as boyfriend and girlfriend,⁶ while other accounts said they had begun communicating on Instagram only weeks earlier and were engaged in what Kubiak called “soul-searching and healing.”⁵

Charges, Plea, and Sentence

Kubiak was originally charged with one count of murder under a willful, deliberate, and premeditated theory. He pleaded not guilty and sought bail, arguing through counsel that Dulai had been the “initial aggressor” and that he had acted in self-defense while impaired by psilocybin mushrooms. On the 911 call, he had told the dispatcher, “We took mushrooms together… I was no longer in this reality. I was in trans-different realities.”⁵

The Nevada Supreme Court denied his bail petition in July 2021, upholding the district court’s finding that the proof was evident he had committed first-degree murder.⁷ In September 2021, he pleaded guilty to reduced charges of felony voluntary manslaughter and mayhem, avoiding a murder trial.²

District Judge Jacqueline Bluth sentenced Kubiak on December 3, 2021, to eight to 20 years in prison. At the hearing, he told the court, “I have never hit a woman in my life, and I certainly never wanted to hurt Herleen,” saying Dulai had attacked him while both were under the influence and that he had blacked out. Dulai’s brother, Parambir Dulai, told the court, “She wasn’t simply taken from us; she was brutally beaten to death.” Prosecutor Giancarlo Pesci argued that impairment did not erase what Kubiak had done: “This is an individual who knows the beatings happened, even if she’s high on drugs.” Judge Bluth acknowledged Kubiak was unlikely to reoffend violently but said a lighter sentence would not reflect the “gravity of this situation.”²

Failed Appeal

In February 2023, Kubiak filed a motion in district court to modify or correct what he called an illegal sentence, arguing that his convictions for manslaughter and mayhem were “redundant” and that the court lacked jurisdiction to run the sentences consecutively. The district court denied the motion, and in May 2024 the Nevada Court of Appeals affirmed, ruling that his claims did not meet the legal standard for challenging a sentence as illegal.⁸

His Role on Gigolos

Before the arrest, Kubiak was known as Ash Armand on Gigolos, a Showtime reality series that aired for six seasons from 2011 to 2016. The show followed five male escorts affiliated with the Las Vegas companion agency Cowboys4Angels, run by Garren James.⁹ Armand joined in the third season in 2012 and was marketed as the group’s “zen master,” identifying himself as a “sex and fitness educator.”¹

Why the Name Resurfaced

Kubiak’s name came up publicly again in May 2025 during the federal sex-trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs in Manhattan. Prosecutors introduced a binder of headshots of 13 male escorts, and Cassie Ventura, Combs’ former girlfriend, testified she had recruited these men at Combs’ direction for sexual events prosecutors called “Freak Offs” in Las Vegas, Miami, and Los Angeles. Armand was identified as one of the men in the binder.¹⁰ There is no indication he testified; he was referenced only through the photographic exhibit and Ventura’s testimony. Rapper 50 Cent posted about the connection on social media, pulling wider attention back to Armand’s criminal history.¹¹

The killing also became the subject of Sin City Gigolo: A Murder in Las Vegas, a three-part documentary directed by Barbara Shearer that premiered on Paramount+ on March 4, 2025. It features interviews with Dulai’s friends and family, law enforcement, and former Gigolos cast members.¹² Shearer said investigators “got the right guy” but that there had been a “rush to judgment” over procedural shortcuts in the investigation.¹

Kubiak remains at High Desert State Prison in Nevada, serving his eight-to-20-year sentence.¹

1
People. What Happened to Ash Armand From Sin City Gigolos
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Las Vegas Review-Journal. Former Gigolos Star Sentenced to Prison for Beating Woman to Death
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Ozarks First. Gigolos Actor Ash Armand Arrested for Allegedly Beating Woman to Death
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Las Vegas Review-Journal. Las Vegas Man Faces Murder Charge in Woman’s Death
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Refinery29. Ash Armand Gigolos Murder Herleen Dulai
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KTNV. Las Vegas Police Arrest Man for Death of Girlfriend
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Findlaw. Akshaya Anthony-Dixit Kubiak v. The State of Nevada, No. 82282
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Findlaw. Akshaya Anthony-Dixit Kubiak v. The State of Nevada, No. 86809-COA
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TV Insider. Gigolos Murder Docuseries Ash Armand Herleen Dulai
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People. Sex Worker Ash Armand Gigolos Diddy Trial
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Fox 5 New York. Reality Star Turned Killer Named in Diddy Sex Trafficking Trial
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Paramount Press Express. Paramount Announces Sin City Gigolo