Oral arguments on direct appeal scheduled for the 2nd of June 2020.
https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/SJUN220A.pdf
Oral arguments on direct appeal scheduled for the 2nd of June 2020.
https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/SJUN220A.pdf
The Duong doesn't sound like a birth name.
"There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche
THE PEOPLE v ANH THE DUONG
In today's California Supreme Court opinions, the court AFFIRMED Doung's convictions and sentence of death on direct appeal.
An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.
"Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd
Court Affirms Death Sentence For OC Gang Member In El Monte Pool Hall Killings
The California Supreme Court Monday affirmed the death sentence of an Orange County gang member for the May 6, 1999, shooting deaths of 3 men and a woman at an El Monte pool hall.
In January 2003, a Pomona Superior Court jury found Anh The “Fat John” Duong, then 27, guilty of 3 counts of 1st-degree murder and 1 count of 2nd-degree murder.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, which made the Garden Grove man eligible for the death penalty.
Superior Court Judge Robert Martinez sentenced Duong.
Killed at the now-closed International Club on Telstar Avenue were Minh Dieu Tram, 28, of West Covina; Hao The Tang, 22, of South El Monte; Robert Anthony Norman, 28, of Garden Grove; and Lan Thi Dang, 23, of Long Beach.
Authorities said the gunman argued with another man, then fired at least 9 rounds and fled.
A manager at the club, who was celebrating his birthday at a table with friends who were gang members, allegedly told police that the argument was over a girl, although the manager later denied saying so during trial testimony.
Duong was charged in March 2001 and arrested in July 2001 while playing basketball at a Costa Mesa fitness center. The case was profiled on the TV show “America’s Most Wanted.”
Duong was also a suspect in uncharged robbery shootings in San Jose and Fremont. In San Jose, the gunman fatally shot a supermarket employee who chased after him as Duong allegedly ran with a bag of $300,000. An employee was also killed in the Fremont shooting while the suspect was driving away from the scene.
The defendant’s girlfriend, who was granted immunity by prosecutors, testified about a third, non-fatal shooting of a security guard during a failed attempt to rob a Newport Beach jewelry store. The girlfriend also told authorities about the killing of a security guard at a Cupertino jewelry store.
Duong was indicted in October 2001 for the El Monte murders.
On appeal, Duong’s defense attorneys argued that he should have been granted a change of venue given media coverage of the various shootings and the “America’s Most Wanted” episode.
The California Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying the media coverage was not “sensational and extensive” and noting that only 10 of the 142 potential jurors — and none of the 12 selected — reported seeing any news stories about the case. 2 of 5 alternate jurors did see such stories, though it was not clear whether they were called to deliver the verdict.
The defendant also argued that he was misled about whether he should testify in his own defense.
Defense counsel told the trial court judge that Duong would testify that he shot Tram in defense of another person, then accidentally shot the other 3 victims while he and a co-owner of the club struggled over the gun. Prosecutors said they would then cross-examine the defendant about the 4 uncharged shootings they believed he had committed.
The defense argued that those shootings were irrelevant because they involved robberies, unlike this incident, and asked the judge to make a tentative ruling on the issue before their client took the stand.
The judge said he would allow evidence about the 1997 San Jose robbery and 1998 Fremont robbery — Duong was alleged to have killed 1 person in each incident — but exclude the other 2 robberies where Duong’s status as the shooter was unclear. Duong decided not to take the stand.
The California Supreme Court ruled that Duong’s decision not to do so was knowing, intelligent and voluntary, and he should have understood that he could not appeal the trial judge’s ruling unless he testified at trial.
In affirming the death sentence, the court also found other arguments, including that Duong’s gang membership should not have been admissible, unconvincing.
While jailed in September 2001, awaiting trial, Duong slashed his arm with a shank in what he said was a suicide attempt.
In arguing for the death penalty, the prosecutor reminded the jury how Duong had manipulated his girlfriend to do his bidding.
“Is that the conduct of a man that in any way will ever, ever be anything but a threat to other people?” the prosecutor asked. “Do you think just because he has (life in prison without the possibility of parole) that his conduct will ever change, that he will not be a danger?”
(source for both: mynewsla.com)
An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.
"Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd
Duong's habeas case has been fully briefed before the California Supreme Court since May 19, 2017.
https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....9TQCAgCg%3D%3D
Commuted to LWOP.
https://inmatelocator.cdcr.ca.gov/De...aspx?ID=T84491
Thank you for the adventure - Axol
Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello
Ex-San Quentin guard sentenced to 20 months for cellphone smuggling conspiracy involving gang members on death row
By Nate Gartrell
The Mercury News
SAN FRANCISCO — A former San Quentin corrections officer was given 20 months in federal prison for smuggling 25 cellphones to a prisoner on death row, prosecutors announced Friday.
Keith Christopher, 38, of Pittsburg, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston. Prosecutors asked for a 27-month sentence, arguing that Christopher betrayed his colleagues and the public, and said he started accepting bribes to smuggle phones after his probationary period at the prison ended in 2018.
Christopher submitted a letter to the court where he apologized for “the lack of integrity I displayed and the dishonor to the oath I made as a correctional officer.”
“I understand that I compromised the safety/security of the institution and the public by my actions,” he wrote. “I am ashamed, embarrassed, and very disappointed in myself.”
According to court papers, the cellphones ended up in the possession of two death row inmates: James Ellis, an Adelanto-area gang member sentenced to death in 2017 for a double murder. Ellis in turn allegedly shared them with Anh The Duong, a notorious San Jose gang leader convicted in state court of four murder counts and in federal court of eight murders.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors highlighted recent racketeering cases involving the Aryan Brotherhood and Nuestra Familia in California, where gang leaders are alleged to have ordered murders and facilitated drug deals from inside prison, thanks to contraband cellphones smuggled into various prisons across the state.
“(Cellphones) enable inmates to organize riots, facilitate murder and other violent crime, commit fraud, drug trafficking, witness intimidation, escape, and other criminal activity,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey Boome wrote in a sentencing memo.
In a defense sentencing memo, Assistant Federal Public Defender David Rizk portrayed Christopher as a “distrustful, cynical, and desensitized” prison employee who “stupidly thought that maybe his job would get easier if he did some favors for inmates.” He wrote that Ellis asked him for cellphones. Prosecutors say Ellis claimed it was all Christopher’s idea.
Rizk asked for a 16-month house term in lieu of prison.
(“Christopher) is willing to serve a sentence of whatever length the Court believes is appropriate given the circumstances, but he pleads for the opportunity to do so in a setting that simulates incarceration such as the halfway house or house arrest, where some (though not all) of the risk to his personal safety is mitigated and where he is not detained in solitary confinement or equally harsh conditions,” Rizk wrote.
The U.S. Attorney’s office announced the sentencing in a news release Friday night. Notably absent from the news release, though, was any mention of a sentence for Christopher’s co-defendant, Isaiah Wells, which was scheduled to occur Friday. No information on the sentence was available on the court docket, and neither the U.S. Attorney spokesman nor Wells’ lawyer responded to requests for comment.
Christopher’s two other co-defendants, Dustin Albini and Ellis’ girlfriend, Tanisha Smith-Symes, have also pleaded guilty to federal charges and are scheduled for sentencing.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/02/...death-row/amp/
Thank you for the adventure - Axol
Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park
Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt
I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks