Seven years after Vancouver Island developer Donald Idiens was found stabbed to death in a hotel on The Strip, a Burnaby loan shark has been ordered to stand trial for the killing that rocked poker playing cliques in B.C. and Las Vegas

Accused Greg Chao

The poker aficionado had US$822 in casino chips and about $10,000 in cash when he left for the Imperial Hotel across the street.

The next day Idiens was found with a plastic bag tied around his head wearing only underwear and socks. There were multiple gaping, jagged holes visible in Idiens' head and his right ear was ripped in half.

Almost seven years later, a Burnaby loan shark, well known to police in British Columbia has been charged with his murder and will go to trial in Las Vegas next February 7.

Las Vegas District Judge Nancy Saitta ordered Greg Takung Chao, 31, to trial after he pleaded not guilty to charges of robbing and killing Idiens, 53, a successful contractor and developer from Campbell River.

Police have said they believe the killing was debt-related.

Chao, a Canadian citizen who lived in British Columbia, had been on probation for an extortion conviction when he was arrested in connection with the Idiens case. He was extradited from Canada for the Las Vegas case.

Both Idiens and Chao gambled at the Lumbermen's Social Club, Burnaby, which was at the centre of the casino-gate scandal which destroyed the political career of former NDP premier Glen Clark.

The club attracted high-rollers in B.C.'s poker playing circles.

Chao also belonged to a members-only card club called the Apollo Recreational Society in Vancouver.

Friends said that Idiens was contemplating about giving up his business ventures and playing poker full time when he was killed.

He apparently was tired of his business ventures going awry and being cheated.

Edwin Barber, a close friend of Idiens told the Las Vegas Sun that Idiens was one of the best and most studied poker players he had ever seen, noting that Idiens kept a "black book" in which he jotted notes about mannerisms, occupations or other habits of players.

Court records obtained by The Asian Pacific Post, state that Idiens was playing at a US$20 to US$40 Texas hold 'em table at The Mirage, where players buy in for US$200 when he received a phone call around 5 p.m. on Dec 8, 1977.

He had earlier borrowed US$9,000 in cash from his friend Barber and told him that he had loaned US$1,000 to Chao.

After the phone call, Mirage hotel surveillance video showed Idiens leaving the hotel at 5.17 p.m.

Idiens then walked across the street and entered the Imperial Palace Hotel at 5:25 p.m. The surveillance video from the Imperial Palace Hotel showed Idiens entering the elevator lobby that leads to the guest rooms.

Idiens' battered, bruised and bloodied body was found by the Imperial Palace Hotel housekeeping staff at 9:15 a.m. on December 9, 1997. His body was found on the landing of the 17th floor fire escape stairwell number 10 in tower 4 of the hotel.

Imperial hotel housekeeping staff member Donna Smith told police that on the morning of Dec. 9, Chao had left room number 18136 and asked her to clean the room.

This room is located eight doors away from the stairwell where Idiens body was found.

Smith said the room was in a mess and the bathroom floor was dark brown in colour and it looked like something had been spilled on the floor and wiped up.

Las Vegas police detectives found droplets of blood in the bathroom. A DNA analysis identified the profile of the blood to be consistent with the DNA profile of the victim Idiens.

Hotel records showed the room was paid for with the credit card of Chao's Vancouver girlfriend Yan Chang.

Chao paid his hotel bill of US$930 by cash when checking out on Dec. 9. He then returned to Burnaby.

A B.C. Supreme Court judge who ordered Chao extradited to Las Vegas said if the case was tried in Canada, "I think the likely result would be a conviction of second degree murder based on the evidence presented by the prosecution alone, namely intentional killing simpliciter, and an acquittal on the charge of robbery based on reasonable doubt."

He suggested that the death penalty maybe inappropriate in the circumstances of this case.

Under Nevada law, if the death penalty is not imposed, a conviction for first degree murder carries a penalty of life imprisonment either without the possibility of parole or a minimum period of parole ineligibility for 20 years.

Idiens murder shook the poker playing cliques of Las Vegas.

One month prior to the killing, Dannie Kim, 32, of Walla Walla, Washington who had played poker at the Mirage with Idiens was shot five times in the chest.

She was found on Dec. 17, 1997 inside the trunk of a burning car outside a casino in Inglewood, Calif. Kim later died.