Deliberations Begin in Multiple Murder Trial

VAN NUYS â€”  The multiple murder trial of seven alleged members of the notorious Asian Boyz gang ended Thursday where it began, with lawyers arguing over the credibility of the state’s key witness, an admitted gang member who turned state’s evidence.

As jurors began deliberating late Thursday afternoon, one overwhelming question remained: Do they believe Truong Dinh?

The answer to that question will determine the fate of Bunthoeun Roeung, Sothi Menh, David Evangalista, Roatha Buth, Son Bui, Kimorn Nuth and Ky Tony Ngo. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Five of them face the death penalty.

Dinh, the first witness in the three-month trial, testified over two weeks that his former friends and a cousin were involved in seven murders and 15 attempted murders.

He told the jury about the ambush of a rival gang outside a Van Nuys apartment complex, an armed mission to find any rival gang members in the San Fernando Valley and shoot them, and the deadly attack on individuals they mistook for rival gang members who were simply hanging out at a coffee shop.

What the jurors do not know is that Dinh’s father was shot to death outside his San Jose home as Dinh testified. Authorities have said they suspect the defendants ordered the killing, but it remains unsolved.

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During the past four days, defense lawyers have hammered at Dinh’s various contradictory statements to authorities. They say the killings at issue were really committed by Dinh and another former Asian Boyz gang member who also testified against the gang.

By implicating the defendants in exchange for immunity and leniency, they have gotten away with murder, defense lawyers contend.

“I’m only sorry that someone like that gets a deal and is allowed to walk out of here,� said Jack Stone, who is representing Buth. “I think that, of any of these guys, this should be the one that’s staying.�

Deputy Dist. Attys. Laura Baird and Hoon Chun retorted that, while Dinh may be the heart of the case, circumstantial evidence proves he’s telling the truth. Ballistics tests, eyewitness testimony and the other accomplice who cooperated with police all corroborate Dinh’s version, prosecutors said. They have recovered many of the murder weapons and said that the cartridge casings at the scenes match Dinh’s descriptions of who did the shooting.

“Attacking Dinh is not enough,� Chun said repeatedly as he outlined the evidence tying each defendant to each crime. “It’s all the defense has, but it’s not enough.�

The lawyers also sparred over the details of corroboration, with defense lawyers using differences in hair style, clothing and car descriptions to their advantage and questioning why a rival gang member who was shot at could not identify the defendants, even though he knows them.

Prosecutors countered that, in one incident in which two rival gang members were slain, the defendants could only have been innocent if Dinh walked down the street shooting nine different guns.

The nature of drive-by shootings makes eyewitness identification difficult, Baird said, which is why authorities had to deal with those on the inside and grant them immunity in exchange for their testimony.

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As a final argument, defense lawyers said that, if the defendants did shoot, they did so in self defense, after rival gang members threatened them or shot at them first, much as warring nations engage in preemptive strikes.

Prosecutors took issue with the analogy, saying the defendants were not war heroes but cold-blooded killers who conspired to kill time and again.

“Examine what the witnesses said,� Baird implored the jurors. “You look at the entire case and you will conclude that they committed various acts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.�