A Reality TV Star ‘Lost His Mind’ and Beat His Friend to Death. What to Know About Ash Armand’s Case — and Where He Is Now Nearly 5 Years Later

From 2011 to 2016, Showtime’s controversial reality show Gigolos portrayed the glamorous, risqué lifestyle of five male escorts in Las Vegas. But, four years after the last episode aired, one of those escorts was arrested for murder. 

Ash Armand, whose given name is Akshaya Kubiak, was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and mayhem for the July 2020 beating death of Herleen Dulai, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

He claimed that she attacked him after they took psychedelic mushrooms together and that he “blacked out.” 

Armand called the police to report her unconscious, and when officers arrived, they wrote in the arrest report that Dulai was “obviously deceased.” Her official cause of death was blunt force trauma and strangulation. 

“I have never hit a woman in my life, and I certainly never wanted to hurt Herleen,” Armand said during his sentencing hearing in December 2021.

The Paramount+ docuseries Sin City Gigolo, which premiered March 4, revisited the case and interviewed former cast and crew about their experiences with Armand. Director Barbara Shearer told TV Insider that though the Gigolos star was guilty, there was a “rush to judgment” during the initial investigation. 

“After diving into this case and going down the rabbit hole, there was a rush to judgment,” Shearer said. “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.”

So, what happened to Ash Armand? Here’s everything to know about the Gigolos star’s manslaughter case. 

Who is Ash Armand? 

Ash Armand is a former star of the Showtime reality series Gigolos who joined the cast in season 3 and was known as the group’s “zen master.” On a campaign funding website for his legal defense, Armand was described as a “gentle healer, sensitive teacher and generous friend.”

The reality star was raised in Maine and Japan with his two siblings, per Refinery 29. In a letter to the court, Armand’s mom wrote, “From when he was a little boy, Akshaya grew up immersed in the healing traditions & philosophies of the East & West.”

Shearer told TV Insider that his upbringing was very “unconventional” and “very open sexually,” and that it wasn’t a “big leap” for him to get into sex work. Armand wrote that he was a sex and fitness educator as well as a father in his Instagram bio, which is private. According to Refinery 29, Armand’s son was 17 at the time of his arrest.

It is unclear when exactly Armand got into sex work, but he started working for the agency Cowboys4Angels in 2012, per Refinery 29, and the company’s founder, Garren James, got him a spot on Gigolos that year. Armand remained on the show for four years, until it ended in 2016.

What happened to Herleen Dulai?

Herleen Dulai was a friend of Armand and according to an investigation by Refinery 29, there are conflicting reports about whether or not she was one of his clients. During their friendship, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that they started a business together, though the nature of that business is unclear. 

According to her obituary, Dulai was born in Northern California and graduated from Temple University in Pennsylvania. She led a youth group in Las Vegas and enjoyed “working with children.” At the time of her murder, she was working as a personal trainer, per TV Insider. 

“She touched every soul she came into contact with and left a sparkle,” her obituary read. “She will be remembered for her twinkling smile, contagious laughter and comforting hugs.” 

Dulai was 29 years old when she died on July 16, 2020. The night before she had gone over to Armand’s house and the pair had taken psychedelic mushrooms, lit candles, prayed and watched Avatar. At 10 a.m. the following morning, Armand called 911 and said, “It is going to sound insane because it is insane … There was a struggle. I temporarily lost my mind.”

Paramedics found Armand attempting to do CPR, coached by the 911 operator, as he had told them Dulai had experienced a heart attack, per Refinery 29. But, the first responders did not find evidence of a heart attack. Instead, Dulai had been clearly beaten and blood was spattered around the room.

“When the police get here, I’ll surrender,” Armand told the paramedics, according to the grand jury indictment. Later, Dulai’s autopsy found evidence of extreme violence and her cause of death was determined as blunt force trauma with strangulation as a contributing factor.

What was Ash Armand charged with?

Dulai’s death was ruled a homicide, according to the Clark County coroner’s office, and Armand was charged with her murder. 

He later said that he attacked Dulai because she first attacked him. At the trial, her family asked what kind of assault could possibly make the level of violence Armand enacted necessary, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

In September 2021, he pleaded guilty to felony counts of voluntary manslaughter and mayhem reportedly to spare Dulai’s family a trial. Armand was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison a few months later.

Why was Gigolos canceled?

It’s not clear why Gigolos was canceled in 2016. But throughout its six-season run, the raunchy reality series was met with criticism — especially surrounding its legality. Prostitution has been legal in Nevada since 1971, but only if it occurs within a licensed brothel, per The Nevada Independent. 

Las Vegas police spokesman Marcus Martin told the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2011 that even though the Gigolos cast referred to themselves as a companion service and accepted payment prior to any sexual activity, the activities were still considered illegal. 

“They can play the line as loose as they want to, semantically, but they’re still violating the law,” Martin said. However, because the transactions took place on camera and not in front of an officer, they weren’t considered an arrestable offense. 

Where is Ash Armand now?

Armand has been serving his up to 20-year prison sentence at a Nevada correctional center since 2021. Shearer said she wanted to interview him for Sin City Gigolo but wasn’t able to. 

“He is definitely a strong presence throughout the series, which was very important,” she told TV Insider. “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.”