Sin City Manny: Murder Charges, Trial, and Death Penalty

The Sin City Manny murder case centers on Manuel “Manny” Ruiz, a 42-year-old Las Vegas YouTube streamer charged with two counts of murder with the use of a deadly weapon for fatally shooting Rodney and Tanisha Finley, a married couple and rival content creators, outside the Bellagio Fountains on June 8, 2025. Ruiz has pleaded not guilty and claims self-defense. Clark County prosecutors have filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty, and a jury trial is scheduled to begin August 17, 2026.¹

What Happened Outside the Bellagio

Around 10:40 p.m. on June 8, 2025, Rodney Finley, 44, and Tanisha Finley, 43, were livestreaming on the sidewalk along Las Vegas Boulevard in front of the Bellagio Fountains.² The couple’s own camera captured what happened next. Rodney adjusted the phone, and roughly 20 seconds later Ruiz appeared and opened fire. According to the arrest report, the footage “clearly showed Manny advancing towards Finny while shooting.”³

Five or six shots were fired, then one or two more after Tanisha grabbed the phone.⁴ The phone fell and kept broadcasting until a responding officer shut it off. LVMPD officers on patrol nearby heard the gunfire and found both victims on the west side of the street. Rodney and Tanisha Finley were pronounced dead at the scene. Police reported that no weapons were found on either victim.⁵ Multiple viewers called 911 as they watched the stream, including two who identified themselves as family members watching from home.⁶

Ruiz fled on foot. A first-responding officer encountered him at a median on Las Vegas Boulevard and asked where the shooter had gone; prosecutors say Ruiz gave a false description, pointed at an unrelated person, told the officer “they” were shooting, and kept running.¹ By his own account to detectives, he then went to the Paris Hotel parking garage, stashed his firearm in a gap between a fence and a wall, and ditched his hat and shirt.⁵ Prosecutors have also alleged he passed his phone to his wife to avoid being tracked.⁷ The next morning, at the urging of a friend, Ruiz turned himself in at a Henderson Police station and was booked into the Clark County Detention Center.²

Who the Victims Were

Rodney and Tanisha Finley were a Phoenix couple who made YouTube content together under the channel name “Finny Da Legend.” Rodney ran the roughly 6,000-subscriber channel, and Tanisha, known online as “Bubbly,” frequently appeared with him.⁸ They left behind four children. Their daughter Rakia Finley told reporters her parents “were literally soulmates.”⁹ Rodney’s mother, Gracie Kennedy, said she had been watching the livestream from Phoenix and heard the gunshots over it, having spoken to her son moments earlier when he told her he couldn’t talk because he was live.⁶

The YouTube Feud Behind It

Ruiz and the Finleys had been at odds since 2023, when Ruiz allegedly pepper-sprayed Tanisha Finley.¹⁰ From there the two sides traded insults across hours-long livestreams. Ruiz ran a channel called “Sin City Family” with his wife, Julie, and other streamers accused him of trying to control who could stream in Las Vegas. As viewers and financial supporters reportedly migrated from Ruiz to Finley, the hostility deepened.¹¹ Ruiz filed copyright strikes against Finley’s channel that blocked him from monetizing certain videos.¹² On Halloween 2023, Ruiz filed a police report alleging the Finleys had battered him at the Fremont Street Experience, with Tanisha striking him with a selfie stick and Rodney pushing him.¹³

In the days before the shooting, Ruiz posted videos of himself walking through Las Vegas casinos appearing to look for Finley, who had traveled from Arizona. In one, he said: “I’m out here searching for my baby… I went through every casino there is. I heard there’s one of my biggest fans here.” An older clip showed Ruiz in a car saying, “Catch you at a red light Finny. Boom Boom Boom.”¹¹ Prosecutors have pointed to both as evidence of premeditation.

Ruiz’s Self-Defense Claim

In his police interview, Ruiz said he and his wife were walking on the Strip when they ran into the Finleys. He claimed Tanisha began “dancing in front of his face” and that Rodney reached toward his waistband while saying “What up, cuz?” Ruiz told detectives he believed Rodney was going for a gun and drew his own firearm, which he said he carried legally on a concealed weapons permit because of his “celebrity status” and past altercations. He said he used his “CCW and self-defense training to eliminate the threat.”⁵ As for Tanisha, Ruiz said he saw a “shiny black object” in her hand that he took for a firearm, and he shot her twice.¹⁴ Police found no weapons on or near either victim, and none were visible in the livestream. When detectives played Ruiz the video, which they said showed him advancing on Finley while shooting, he became frustrated and asked for a lawyer.³

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson publicly called the self-defense argument “probably garbage” at a news conference. “There’s no indication from any of the evidence at all that self-defense would be a viable defense,” Wolfson said. “No weapons were found near the victims or on the victims, and the motivation is pretty clear.”⁴

The Charges and the Death Penalty Decision

On July 10, 2025, a Clark County grand jury voted to indict Ruiz on two counts of murder with the use of a deadly weapon.¹⁵ At his district court arraignment on July 17, 2025, prosecutor Elizabeth Mercer said the case would go before the Clark County District Attorney’s Death Penalty Review Committee, scheduled to meet on July 29, 2025.¹⁶ Prosecutors then filed a formal notice of intent to seek death, citing two aggravating factors: multiple murders, and a “great risk of death” to others in the crowded Strip area.¹⁷

Bail Denials and Pretrial Fights

Ruiz has been denied bail at every turn. A justice of the peace ordered him held without bail at his initial appearance in June 2025.¹⁸ In March 2026, his public defender, Chief Deputy Public Defender David Lopez-Negrete, moved for bail at $100,000 with electronic monitoring. The defense argued Ruiz acted on genuine fear rooted in the 2023 altercation, and that PTSD from a stabbing he suffered at age 23 “informed his reaction to the threat he perceived.” Lopez-Negrete conceded his client “shouldn’t have fled” but called the flight panic, not consciousness of guilt.⁷

Chief Deputy District Attorney Elizabeth Mercer called the self-defense theory “absolutely absurd,” arguing the video shows none of the threatening movements Ruiz claimed, pointing to the casino-search videos and the older “red light” clip as premeditation, and stressing that “it is pure chance that no other individuals were struck” on the crowded Strip.⁷ On April 2, 2026, District Judge Tierra Jones denied the request, finding the evidence against Ruiz “strong” and no bail appropriate given the severity of the charges.¹⁹

What Ruiz Faces at Trial

Ruiz has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder with the use of a deadly weapon and remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center. His jury trial is scheduled to begin August 17, 2026.¹ If convicted, he faces a possible death sentence.²⁰

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News 3 Las Vegas. Defense Bail Argument in Las Vegas Strip Murder Case
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LVMPD. LVMPD News Release
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News 3 Las Vegas. Man Arrested in Las Vegas Strip Murders Said He Shot in Self-Defense
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CBS News. Las Vegas Shooting Livestreamed on Victims’ YouTube Channel
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KTNV. Man Accused of Killing Two on Las Vegas Strip Claims He Shot in Self-Defense
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8 News Now. Family Speaks About Arizona YouTubers Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip
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Las Vegas Review-Journal. Judge to Issue Decision on Bail for Suspect in Social Media-Fueled Fatal Strip Shooting
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News 3 Las Vegas. Online Community Says Strip Shooter, Victim Were YouTubers Who Had Ongoing Beef
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8 News Now. YouTuber Panicked After Killing 2 on Las Vegas Strip, Seeks $100K Bail
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8 News Now. Grand Jury Indicts Man Accused of Killing 2 in Livestreamed Las Vegas Strip Shooting
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Court TV. YouTuber Charged in Las Vegas Strip Murders Could Face Death Penalty
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KTNV. Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty for YouTuber Accused in Livestreamed Murders
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8 News Now. YouTuber Denied Bail Again in Las Vegas Strip Double Shooting
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Fox 5 Vegas. Judge Denies Bail for YouTuber Accused in Las Vegas Strip Double Murder