Shocking ‘Gigolos’ Murder Docuseries: Director Reveals New Details, Plus See Exclusive Video

The controversial Showtime reality series Gigolos found itself back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2020 when one of the show’s male escort stars was charged with a shocking murder. 

Now the brutal killing is the subject of a new three-part docuseries Sin City Gigolo: A Murder In Las Vegas which premieres March 4 on Paramount+.

Gigolos ran for six seasons from 2011-2016 and followed the lives of five male escorts in Las Vegas. Among the hard-bodied hunks offering sexual services in the show was Ash Armand (real name Akshaya Kubiak). He was arrested after first responders answered a 911 call to his residence where they discovered the bruised and bludgeoned body of a 29-year-old woman, Herleen Dulai. 

Gruesome details emerged, leading to many questions, scrutiny concerning the Las Vegas Police Department’s handling of the case and what went on that led to the death of Dulai, who was working as a personal trainer at the time of her killing.

Armand argued during testimony that he “blacked out” and had no memory of what unfolded after the two had taken psychedelic mushrooms. He pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and mayhem, and was sentenced to serve eight-to-20 years in a Nevada prison.

Over three episodes, viewers are given an inside look at who Armand is through the lens of family, friends, exes, and  former Gigolos cast members. Law enforcement who worked on the case also weigh in with their perspective of events. Check out TV Insider’s exclusive video, below.

Ahead of the premiere director Barbara Shearer also sits down with us to talk about the making of the show and reveals details that shocked her. 

How much of this story did you know before diving in? 

Barbara Shearer: I knew nothing. Not only that, I’m based in Toronto and am a Toronto filmmaker. Although I do most of my work in the U.S., I’d never seen the Showtime series Gigolos. I had no idea what this series was about. I didn’t know any of the characters. I hadn’t heard of the crime, which was a good thing I think from a filmmaking perspective. I came in with no agenda, no preconceived notions. Also, because I’ve done so much true-crime and there is so much crime out there, I thought, “How do I make this cut through the noise? How do we make a completely different show here?” That was what drove the narrative for me.

Herleen Dulai (Photo Credit: De La Vega Fine Art)

When you hear gigolo or sex worker, that can garner preconceived notions. How much would you say that played into the investigation and the way things unfolded? Also, were you shocked at all how bungled the initial investigation was when they misidentified the victim. 

We do make a case for that very purposely. It’s why I brought in Whitney Wester. She is a practicing defense lawyer and a friend of Ash. She had done such a thorough investigation on her own, way before this became a project. In episode 3, we definitely pitted the DA versus the defense lawyer. She was not the defense lawyer at all. It did not go to  jury. He pleaded out, just be clear. Had it gone to jury, what would have been both sides of the argument in that?  More like that because after diving into this case and going down the rabbit hole, there was a rush to judgment. Bottom line is they got the right guy. I’m not in any way saying that didn’t happen. We have the right guy, but were corners cut? Yes. Was there a rush to judgment? Yes. I definitely make that evident throughout the series with the twists and turns of what happened. 

(Photo by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Getty Images)

How was it getting the Gigolos cast members on the show? 

Jay Blumenfield and Tony Marsh were the producers of the Gigolos show on Showtime. They were always on board. They came in as executive producers and were going to sit down for the interviews because they know the characters. Then we went to each of the Gigolos. You realize in Episode 3 how much they were involved in the story. Brace [Land] was always on board. Nick [Hawk], who now has some sort of retreat in Sedona, was a bit tricky. I convinced him to come on board, and he ended up being great. We got those two. 

Bradley [Lords] sort of disappeared. We’re not sure where Bradley is right now, but during development Bradley did a development interview. That’s what we used there. Definitely, we have the voices. Brace and Nick interviews were done literally months ago, so those are fresh. It was great to have those characters in there to give a little bit more. I saw them as the chorus or the court jesters in what I was trying to portray as this Las Vegas style Greek tragedy. We have the other characters like the detectives, the DA, mother and people who represent the victim and defense lawyer to explain how it could have gone. These guys sort of weigh in, which to me, that’s what makes the show different. I really wanted to lean into that. 

(Photo Credit: Showtime/Paramount+)

How was it getting Ash’s mom involved? Was she just trying to get his side of the story out there? 

Absolutely. It’s that straightforward. 

What was your takeaway from her perspective? Ash looked to have a very unique upbringing. 

It was a very unconventional upbringing. There is no question. Very open sexually, which is unconventional in terms of sexuality. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I don’t want that to be misconstrued. I just mean very unconventional upbringing. Very unconventional household, which I’m surmising why it wasn’t a big leap to go into being a sex worker. The way Ash saw it was quite different than how some people see it. 

(Photo Credit: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police )

Have you gotten an idea of what Ash thinks of this docuseries? 

We wanted to interview him. We absolutely set out to interview him. I wanted his voice in it for sure. We have the phone calls. He is a presence because of the Showtime series, but also because of the phone calls were able to get. There are a couple of ones where he is on the phone with  his mom and aunt and the courtroom footage too. He is definitely a strong presence throughout the series, which was very important. We were unable to interview him. That was more the prison call on that. We couldn’t get cameras in, so it was really tricky. We felt by the end of it we had enough where he maintained a strong presence throughout the series. 

What about Herleen’s family? It was so difficult to see the courtroom footage and hear the anguish in their voices. They were completely broken from this tragedy. 

I’ve been doing true-crime for the last 20 years. I always reach out to the victim’s family. It was really important to have that. It was met with silence. I get it. I really understand it. I think it was so important we had that courtroom footage of them because it really drives home the tragedy. It reminds the audience and  shows how tragic and real it is for a loss of the family. This is a really horrible crime at the center of it. It was so poignant to have that footage. 

What surprised you about this project? 

To me, on the surface it looked like a very open and shut case. I was with the detective. Then when we heard the investigation Whitney did. It was such an incredibly thorough investigation. I was shocked at what she came up with. Also, her theories were such that there had been a trial that perhaps a strong defense lawyer would have hypothesized for a jury. Would there be enough reasonable doubt? I thought that was really an interesting aspect of the story, which is exactly why I made it the pinnacle of the storyline in Episode 3. 

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What do you think was the most challenging part of this project? 

I made sure the victim had a voice in it. That was challenging. We did get a friend who trained her and who also worked with her at the gym. He was definitely close to her. That was really important to get, so we don’t forget the victim in this craziness of all these wild characters of ex-girlfriends, Instagramers, sex workers and gigolos and Las Vegas itself. That was a challenge, and I’m super grateful we got that person. We also had some video of her to bring her alive and show who this woman was. I was just trying to break through the noise of every true-crime series out there. 

What do you want to say to viewers before watching this? 

I want them to know this is not your average true-crime series that they are seeing come out every week. This is a bit different. We worked really hard to make it unique and get the characters onboard who make it unique. It seems a little larger-than-life in places, but at the core of it is a brutal homicide. We can’t forget that. And we don’t. I think this one is a bit different in how we approach the story. I really hope viewers come away with that. 

Sin City Gigolo: A Murder In Las Vegas premiere, March 4, Paramount+