Akshaya Kubiak | Was "Gigolos" Star Too Attractive to Murder Client with Bare Hands?

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[00:01:18] of the most horrific crimes and those who committed them from a scientifically informed perspective. I'm Dr. Todd Grande. I have a PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision, and I'm a licensed professional counselor of mental health. Dr. Todd Grande, that's my YouTube channel.

[00:01:37] Today's question is, can I analyze the case of Akshaya Kubiak? First I'll look at the background of this case, move to the timeline of the crime, then offer my analysis. Akshaya Anthony Dixit Kubiak was born in September 1981. He eventually went by the name Ash.

[00:01:56] His American father and his Indian mother were both teachers. They wandered around quite a bit. For example, the family spent time in the state of Maine as well as in Japan. Ash was exposed to and influenced by many different cultures when he was young.

[00:02:12] His mother would later say that he grew up immersed in the healing traditions and philosophies of the East and West. Ash was introduced to an international crowd of scientists, poets, intellectuals, artists, and academics of every stripe.

[00:02:28] At the age of 16, when Ash lived in Maine, he dropped out of school to study an ancient Chinese form of meditation. After working as a model, he returned to Maine. In 2000, Ash earned his GED. For a while, he studied massage therapy in Japan, Thailand, India, and Europe.

[00:02:48] He worked in Costa Rica before setting up a massage therapy practice in Miami, Florida. In March 2011, Ash was approached by a man named Garen James, who was the founder of an escort service called Cowboys for Angels.

[00:03:04] This business supplied straight, elite male companions to women who were willing to pay. According to the company, the men were only available for companionship, definitely not sex. The company website says, quote, our agency breaks no laws and the expectations are clear.

[00:03:23] No sex will be offered, paid for, or promised, unquote. Ash signed a contract with Garen and joined Cowboys for Angels. Some people have suggested that it is possible that Ash could have engaged in sex work. Who knows why they would think such a thing?

[00:03:41] Even though Ash was described as a highly successful companion, he still had a lot of money problems. As it turns out, Garen was a consultant for a Showtime reality series called Gigolos, which was filmed in Las Vegas.

[00:03:56] He arranged an audition for Ash, but the audition was a disaster. Despite this, the producers cast him on the show. Maybe a disaster is exactly what they were looking for. Using the name Ash Armand, he appeared on the show starting in season three. This was in August 2012.

[00:04:15] Each character on the show had a particular brand, image, or persona. Ash was supposed to be the spiritual Zen warrior. He played a kind and compassionate gigolo who wanted to heal women.

[00:04:29] When he was asked what it would take to succeed as a gigolo, he said, you shouldn't be a self-centered egotistical person. Even though the show Gigolos was terrible, some people still watched it, and Ash was relatively popular among this small audience.

[00:04:46] This led to even more customers, and of course these customers were definitely not paying for sex. The women were only seeking companionship. Anything else would be illegal. Ash started posting images and videos on social media platforms. He had his own YouTube channel, which eventually accumulated almost 70,000 subscribers.

[00:05:07] Ash told his audience that he would help them with sexual mastery. Over the next few years, he continued to be featured on Gigolos. When combining this with the social media success, Ash transformed into a minor celebrity.

[00:05:22] Consistent with his newfound low level of fame, he fell into a party lifestyle in Las Vegas and allegedly started using substances. In 2014, Ash started dating a woman who called herself Tucci Cash. She was known for having an Instagram account featuring images of her posterior.

[00:05:43] Tucci Cash was also a minor celebrity, but more popular than Ash. Being with her elevated Ash to a new level of popularity. It appears as though Ash became obsessed with transforming from a minor celebrity to a regular celebrity.

[00:05:58] He started posting increasingly daring and sexually charged images of himself and was desperate for attention. The comments on the social media platforms became like a drug. He just couldn't get enough. As this was happening, Ash became possessive and controlling in his relationship with Tucci Cash.

[00:06:17] He allegedly threatened to physically attack a man who interacted in a non-romantic way with his girlfriend. This did not make Tucci Cash happy. She broke up with him in 2016. Given the appropriateness of this rejection, Ash could have responded to Tucci with the

[00:06:35] word touche, but he went a different route. He kept trying to convince her to come back to him. In 2017, Tucci Cash started dating another gigolo. In response, Ash sent a threatening message to him. Mercifully, the TV series Gigolos was not renewed by Showtime.

[00:06:54] Ash not only lost his girlfriend, he lost his show. At around this time, he started missing appointments scheduled by Cowboys for Angels. Again, if he had made those appointments, no sex would have happened. These were only about companionship.

[00:07:09] In 2019, his contract terminated and he allegedly started offering sex work services. It appears as though Ash felt the pressure of getting older. He was worried about his physical appearance and started using steroids. He started dating a woman named Tia Evans.

[00:07:26] Eventually, she moved into his Las Vegas condominium on Blackstone Ridge Court. Ash told her that he wanted to go back to massage therapy, but he allegedly continued to engage in sex work. In May 2020, when Ash was still romantically involved with Tia, he received a message from

[00:07:44] a woman named Harleen Dule. It's not exactly clear what type of arrangement Harleen was looking for, but it is reasonable to believe she wanted to be a client, like she was willing to pay Ash for sex.

[00:07:58] Later, envelopes were found belonging to her that contained thousands of dollars in cash. Whatever her motive was, Harleen did form some type of romantic relationship with Ash. This relationship quickly intensified. Now moving to the timeline of the crime. On July 15, 2020, Ash broke up with Tia out of nowhere.

[00:08:20] He told her that she was not in alignment with his journey. Tia did not move out of the condominium because she had no place to go. Later, Ash made an unkind statement to Tia, which caused her to temporarily leave the condominium.

[00:08:35] Harleen came over and spent time with Ash. At some point, they went upstairs to a bedroom. On the next day, July 16, 2020, at 1023 a.m., Ash called 911 from his condominium. He told the operator that he needed the police and also an ambulance.

[00:08:54] Ash then tried to explain what happened by saying, quote, it's going to sound insane because it is insane. I had a person who was a friend of mine over. We took mushrooms together last night. We said our prayers together. We put on Avatar together, the movie Avatar.

[00:09:15] I was watching it, and I don't know if you've ever done mushrooms before, but I started like I was no longer like in this reality anymore. I was like in trans different realities.

[00:09:28] And then I saw the person next to me, and I saw, and I was like, I was like, yo, like I was like, I see you like you, you're sitting. She was like holding on to a soul of a beautiful being, unquote.

[00:09:45] The operator interrupted in order to collect critical information more quickly. Eventually, Ash told the operator that Harleen had a heart attack and had a history of cancer. When first responders arrived, they found 29-year-old Harleen Dule dead in an upstairs bedroom.

[00:10:03] Ash told a paramedic that Harleen attacked him, and then he attacked her. Later, he told a fire captain, I did this, and said he would surrender to the police when they arrived. Ash was taken into custody by officers without incident.

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[00:11:56] We can't thank you enough for the support. Now back to the show. Here's what the police found during the course of their investigation. Arlene died from blunt force trauma with strangulation as a contributing factor.

[00:12:10] Her hair was matted, blood was around her head and her face was black, blue and swollen. She had broken teeth and some of her teeth were in her stomach. Her blood alcohol level was .038 and she had ecstasy and psilocybin in her system.

[00:12:29] Psilocybin was also found in the refrigerator. There was a packed suitcase in the bedroom covered with candle wax. There was also candle wax in Arlene's hair and on her body. Inside the washing machine, there was blood.

[00:12:42] On the bathroom counter, there was blood that was watered down as if somebody had tried to clean the scene of the killing. Ash only had one visible injury, a small laceration on the middle finger of his left hand. The police charged Ash with first degree murder.

[00:12:59] It was clear that he had brutally beaten Arlene with his fists. In September 2021, under the terms of a plea bargain, Ash pleaded guilty to manslaughter and mayhem. He received just 8 to 20 years in prison, a much lighter sentence than if he had been convicted of first degree murder.

[00:13:19] Now moving to my analysis. Here are my thoughts on a few areas that stood out to me in this case. Item number one. Ash was fortunate to receive such a generous plea bargain. In my opinion, there is no doubt he was guilty of murder.

[00:13:32] I don't know if he committed first degree murder, but a good case could be made for second degree murder. Even if Arlene attacked him first, as he claimed, Ash was much physically stronger and could have easily defended himself without lethal force or he could have simply escaped.

[00:13:48] The fact that strangulation was involved and Ash attempted to escape responsibility further eroded his argument of self-defense. This brings me to item number two. There was evidence that Ash tried to clean up the scene of the killing and may have packed a suitcase.

[00:14:04] I think he realized there was no way to clean up all the blood, so he generated another story. He wanted to make it seem as though Arlene was very sick and he was trying to heal her. Something went wrong and she died.

[00:14:19] This is consistent with a GoFundMe campaign, which was established for his legal defense. Referring to Ash, it read, quote, one morning in July, a very sick young woman friend died in his home. He had called 911 for medical help and told the authorities he felt responsible.

[00:14:38] The 911 phone staff coached him in an emergency CPR, which they continued together until the team arrived. Tragically, she did not survive, unquote. Item number three, despite the guilty plea entered by Ash, many of his friends, acquaintances and family members do not believe he was guilty of any crime.

[00:15:00] They just can't reconcile the killing with the man they knew. Many people described Ash as empathic, gentle, happy, peaceful, non-violent and a healer of women. They had not ever seen him be violent in all the years they knew him.

[00:15:18] Referring to the killing, one woman who knew Ash said it must have been a grave accident. Another female friend said that Ash couldn't hurt anybody and added it would be like her grandmother being charged with a crime.

[00:15:31] An ex-girlfriend insisted that Ash had a deep understanding of the power and sacredness of the feminine. She never felt unsafe or concerned about his behavior with women. Item number four, what do I think happened in this case? This is just a theory, my opinion.

[00:15:48] Some women found Ash overwhelmingly physically attractive and were willing to pay him for sex. For example, Ash charged $800 for two hours of his time, $3,000 to spend the night and $25,000 a week. Ash was not good at managing his money and even with his stunning looks, there simply

[00:16:09] isn't a lot of demand for male sex workers. He never had much money and his level of fame was quite low. When Ash became involved with Tucci Cash, he thought it was his chance to cash in.

[00:16:22] Now he would finally make it big in the world of social media influencers. Ash was always thinking about different business ideas like a security service for women and an app for safe dating opportunities, but he was too disorganized to find success.

[00:16:38] In addition, he invested heavily in the party lifestyle, which involved substance use. This may have led to some reality testing problems. For example, Ash once told a love interest that the devil was disguising himself as family members to take him to the underworld.

[00:16:55] Desperate and becoming increasingly insecure, Ash attempted to control Tucci Cash, which led to her rejecting him. The pressure to find fame before it was too late only intensified and Ash became erratic. Around the same time, Harleen was dealing with her own problems.

[00:17:13] She had moved to Las Vegas from Pennsylvania after graduating with her bachelor's degree. Harleen had difficulty regulating her intake of food, which caused weight gain problems. She managed to lose 40 pounds at a gym but then quit working out and gained the weight back. Attention-seeking behavior was also evident.

[00:17:33] For example, Harleen may have lied to people about having a cancerous tumor in her brain. In a desperate attempt to feel valuable and cared for, Harleen paid Ash for sex. This arrangement protected her from being rejected. She was not proud of her behavior and wanted to conceal it.

[00:17:51] For example, when she visited Ash, she deactivated the GPS on her cell phone. During their encounter on July 15 and 16, Harleen and Ash used drugs, including psychedelics. At some point, Ash became angry with her and beat her to death. He stated that he temporarily lost his mind.

[00:18:11] Any number of factors could have contributed to the homicidal behavior. Drug use, impulsivity, aggression, insecurity, vindictiveness, sadism, immaturity. There is no way to know exactly why Ash became a killer. In my opinion, his behavior is best explained by his anger and insecurity.

[00:18:30] After trying to clean the crime scene, Ash decided to call 911 and hoped for the best. The reason that many of his friends could not accept his guilt is based on his physical attractiveness. This is a powerful characteristic that has tremendous influence over human behavior.

[00:18:46] When someone is physically attractive, they are given the benefit of the doubt in almost every situation. Falsely believing this trait predicts nonviolence is an expedient way to take any situation and reduce it to ashes. This has been True Crime Psychology and Personality from Ars Langa Media.

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