LAS VEGAS (AP) - A Nevada jury will resume deliberating Monday whether an accused 25-year-old hit man for a Chinese gang should get the death penalty for brutally stabbing a man to death in a crowded Las Vegas karaoke bar over a $10,000 gambling debt.

A prosecutor told jurors Thursday that sparing Xiao Ye Bai's life would only put a ruthless inmate trained to kill with his bare hands atop the pecking order in Nevada's state prison system. Bai's lawyers cast him as an abused child who became a frightened man.

Bai apologized to the jury on Wednesday, and his mother dropped to her knees from the witness stand Thursday and pleaded for mercy. Bai was found guilty of stabbing Wen Jun Li to death and slashing two other people in July 2009.

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