Murder defendant had history of attacks on victim

Molly Ball

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2004 | 8:51 a.m.

A man accused of killing his girlfriend outside a Las Vegas karaoke bar reportedly shot her in the leg a few days before the killing and had previously been jailed for domestic violence against her, according to court documents.

In a hearing Tuesday morning, District Judge Jackie Glass ruled that a jury will be allowed to hear about the prior bad acts of 34-year-old Vannasone Quanbengboune when he goes on trial next week for the murder of Raynna Bunyou.

Quanbengboune allegedly shot the 38-year-old Bunyou first in the thigh, then in the head, as she emerged from the Bangkok Boom club, 3111 S. Valley View Boulevard, near Desert Inn Road, in the wee hours of Aug. 7, 2003.

Quanbengboune, who is also charged with robbery, allegedly fled in Bunyou's car after shooting her. He was arrested about a week later in Oklahoma City after a five-hour standoff with authorities.

According to a court motion filed by Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens, Quanbengboune took Bunyou "up into the mountains" on Aug. 1, 2003, "and held her against her will at gunpoint. At one point he fired the gun and Raynna was injured in the leg."

Quanbengboune then allegedly called a friend of Bunyou and told her "that he should have just killed her." He said "he let her go because she begged for her life," the motion states.

Quanbengboune also was arrested in February after police, called by Bunyou, found Quanbengboune sitting in the dark on the couch in the house the two shared. A handgun was found under the couch cushion, police reported.

A glass table and a mirror were shattered, and a cell phone and a cordless phone had been smashed, the motion states. Bunyou had a swollen eye and bruises on her knee and armpit.

Owens told the judge that Quanbengboune wrote letters in which he referred to the arrest as the reason he killed Bunyou.

"This is his motive," the prosecutor said. "This is what angered him."

Owens told the judge he will not bring up another prior incident, in which Quanbengboune was arrested in Oregon in 1997 for threatening to kill a former girlfriend.

In order to be admitted at trial, prior bad acts must be relevant and provable, and their potential to prejudice the jury must be outweighed by their value to the case.

Quanbengboune's trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.

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