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Thread: Sophon Ting, Chris Douangkham and Oloth Phommahaxay Sentenced in 2011 CA Slayings of A Husband, His Wife and Their Daughter

  1. #1
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Sophon Ting, Chris Douangkham and Oloth Phommahaxay Sentenced in 2011 CA Slayings of A Husband, His Wife and Their Daughter

    Three teenagers accused of murder appeared in court Thursday for the first time since a husband, his wife and their daughter were shot inside the family's V & V Oriental Market in Modesto on Tuesday.

    "I hope they hang them." said a victim's relative, who did want to be identified.

    In court, the judge revealed 15-year-old Sophon Ting and 16-year-old Chris Douangkham will be tried as adults along with 18-year-old Oloth Phommahaxay.

    Prosecutors are charging all three with three counts of murder, robbery, burglary and participating in a street gang.

    Prosecutors also added special allegations and special circumstances that could make this a death penalty case. However, in court, the prosecutor told the judge that the district attorney's office is "reserving disclosure" about a decision on the death penalty until a later date.

    Victims Vanh Thammvingsa, 55, and his wife, Phouvieng, died the day of the shooting. The couple's daughter, Nanci remains on life-support.

    "However, because she is essentially brain-dead, she is being treated as murder victim for purposes of the charges." Modesto Police Chief Mike Harden explained.

    Attorneys for all three suspects entered not guilty pleas and denied the special enhancements.

    The judge denied bail for Phommahaxay. Bail for Ting and Douangkham was set at $10 million each.

    http://www.kcra.com/mostpopular/26642309/detail.html

  2. #2
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    June 7, 2011

    No death penalty sought in Modesto market murders

    By Rosalio Ahumada
    The Modesto Bee

    MODESTO — The Stanislaus County district attorney’s office will not seek the death penalty in the case of three teenagers charged with the shooting deaths of a Modesto couple and their adult daughter during an apparent robbery at the family’s market in late January.

    Defendants Oloth Dicky Phommahaxay, 18, Sophon Theoun Ting, 16, and Chris Douangkham, 16, all of Modesto, are charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Vanh and Phouvieng Thammavongsa and their daughter, Nanci Thammavongsa.

    The defendants appeared in court briefly this morning for a pretrial hearing. As an adult, Phommahaxay was eligible for the death penalty if he were to be convicted.

    Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira told Judge Marie Silveira that the district attorney’s office would not be seeking the death penalty against Phommahaxay. The other two defendants, who are minors, were not eligible for the death penalty under state law.

    The district attorney’s office will prosecute Ting and Douangkham as adults. The three teenage defendants have pleaded not guilty.

    Nobody at the DA’s office was immediately available for comment as to why the death penalty wasn’t sought.

    A few relatives of the victims, who attended today’s hearing, were notified of the district attorney’s decision before the hearing began. They declined to comment for this report.

    The defendants are scheduled to return to court for a continued arraignment hearing on Tuesday.

    Bail has been set at $10 million each for Douangkham and Ting, who are being held at the Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall. Since his arrest, Phommahaxay was being held without bail, but the decision not to seek the death penalty made him eligible for $10 million bail.

    Police said the defendants are known gang members, so gang enhancements have been added to their charges. A criminal complaint filed in late January says the defendants are members of the CWA Crips street gang.

    A gang enhancement is added to charges when authorities believe a crime was committed for the benefit of a street gang. The enhancement can result in longer prison sentences.

    For 15 years, Vanh Thammavongsa, 55, and his wife, Phouvieng Thammavongsa, 49, had owned and operated V&V Oriental Market at 1320 Yosemite Blvd., east of Santa Cruz Avenue.

    Nanci Thammavongsa, 28, suffered a developmental disability at birth. She required constant care and was usually with her parents at the market.

    Vanh Thammavongsa was pronounced dead at the scene of the Jan. 25 shooting. His wife and daughter were taken by ambulance to a Modesto hospital. His wife died at the hospital later that day.

    Nanci Thammavongsa died after two days on life-support equipment at the hospital.

    The market has been closed since the shootings.

    http://www.modbee.com/2011/06/07/172...#storylink=cpy

  3. #3
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    February 20, 2013

    Modesto murder defendants fight before hearing


    By Rosalio Ahumada
    The Modesto Bee

    MODESTO — Two of three defendants accused of murdering three people in a Modesto robbery did not appear in court Wednesday because they were involved in a scuffle while in a holding cell waiting to enter the courthouse.

    Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira said Oloth Dicky Phommahaxay, 20, and Chris Douangkham, 18, were involved in an "altercation" Wednesday morning, and one of them was being examined by jail medical staff.

    Phommahaxay, Douang-kham and Sophon Theoun Ting, 17, have been indicted in the shooting deaths of a Modesto couple and their adult daughter during an apparent robbery at their family's market two years ago.

    Wednesday's scuffle occurred about 9 a.m. while several inmates were waiting in a holding cell, said deputy Royjindar Singh, a Stanislaus County sheriff's spokesman. The cell is in a tunnel, where inmates are brought from the jail to the downtown Modesto courthouse.

    The inmates were in the cell restrained with shackles on their wrists and ankles. Singh said deputies heard the scuffle and spotted Phommahaxay, Douang-kham and Tou Vang Xiong fighting.

    The deputies ordered the inmates to stop and get on the ground, and they complied. Deputies searched the inmates and the cell, but no weapons were found.

    Singh said Douangkham suffered a small cut on his head, but he refused medical treatment. No other injuries were reported.

    It's unclear to sheriff's officials why the inmates were fighting, or whether Phommahaxay and Douangkham were fighting each other. None of the inmates wanted to press charges.

    Xiong, 28, has been charged with murder in the July 2009 shooting deaths of Merced resident Gao Sheng Her, 23, and Modesto resident Nhia Yang, 27, at a home in the 1700 block of Radley Place in west Modesto. His trial is scheduled to start April 22.

    Phommahaxay, Douang-kham and Ting were indicted a year ago, but the case has been stalled and their trial has not been scheduled. Before the judge learned of the jail scuffle, she was going to postpone Wednesday's hearing because one of the defense attorneys was not able to attend.

    Silveira continued the hearing until next Wednesday.

    Only Ting, who is being held at Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall, appeared in court. He will be 18 years old next week, and the Probation Department is requesting that he be transferred to the adult jail on his birthday.

    Robert Winston, Ting's defense attorney, told the judge they can discuss the request to transfer his client during next week's hearing. He didn't indicate whether he will seek to keep Ting at Juvenile Hall.

    Ting and Douangkham were minors at the time of the shooting. They are being prosecuted as adults. Douangkham was transferred to the adult jail on his birthday in October.

    The defendants, all of Modesto, are charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Vanh and Phouvieng Thammavongsa and their daughter, Nanci Thammavongsa.

    For 15 years, Vanh Thammavongsa, 55, and his wife, Phouvieng, 49, had owned and operated V&V Oriental Market at 1320 Yosemite Blvd., east of Santa Cruz Avenue in Modesto. Nanci Thammavongsa, 28, suffered a developmental disability at birth. She required constant care and usually was with her parents at the market.

    Phommahaxay, Douangkham and Ting also are accused of robbery, burglary and participating in a criminal street gang in connection with the market shootings. Police investigators have said the defendants are known members of the CWA Crips street gang.

    http://www.modbee.com/2013/02/20/258...#storylink=cpy

  4. #4
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    October 8, 2014

    Trial scheduled for deadly shooting at Modesto family’s market


    BY ROSALIO AHUMADA
    The Modesto Bee

    A judge has scheduled a trial for three young men accused of murder in the shooting deaths of a Modesto couple and their adult daughter during an apparent robbery at the family’s market in 2011.

    Defendants Oloth Dicky Phommahaxay, Sophon Theoun Ting and Chris Douangkham, all of Modesto, are charged with three counts of murder in the deaths of Vanh and Phouvieng Thammavongsa and their daughter, Nanci Thammavongsa.

    A criminal grand jury indicted the defendants in February 2012. Prosecutors sought the indictment to speed up the court process, skipping the preliminary hearing phase and moving straight to trial.

    But the case remained stalled for two years and eight months until Tuesday, when Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira scheduled the trial to start Aug. 18. The trial is scheduled to begin four years and seven months after the Thammavongsas were killed in their family’s market.

    The shooting occurred Jan. 25, 2011. For 15 years, the Thammavongsas had owned and operated V&V Oriental Market at 1320 Yosemite Blvd., east of Santa Cruz Avenue in Modesto.

    Nanci Thammavongsa suffered a developmental disability at birth. She required constant care and usually was with her parents at the market.

    Vanh Thammavongsa was pronounced dead where he was found at the market after the shooting. His wife and daughter were taken by ambulance to a Modesto hospital. His wife died at the hospital later that day.

    Nanci Thammavongsa died after two days on life support at the hospital. The family since has closed the market for good.

    Police investigators have said the defendants are known gang members, so gang enhancements have been added to their charges. A criminal complaint filed shortly after their arrests says the defendants are members of the CWA Crips street gang.

    A gang enhancement is added to charges when authorities believe a crime was committed for the benefit of a street gang. The enhancement can result in longer prison sentences.

    Ting and Douangkham were minors when the shooting occurred, but they are being prosecuted as adults. All three are being held at the Stanislaus County jail as they await their trial.

    http://www.modbee.com/news/local/cri...le3175622.html


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  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    September 14, 2021

    A decade after a Modesto family was killed inside its business, jury reaches verdict

    BY ERIN TRACY
    The Modesto Bee

    More than a decade after a couple and their adult daughter were gunned down inside their Yosemite Boulevard business, a jury has returned a verdict in the case.

    On the afternoon of Jan. 25, 2011, Vanh and Phouvieng Thammavongsa and their daughter, Nanci Thammavongsa, were each shot in the head at V and V Oriental Market, a store the couple had operated for 15 years. Vanh died at the scene and Phouvieng and her daughter died not long after at hospitals.

    Three Modesto teenagers were arrested and charged with their murders: Oloth “Dicky” Phommahaxay, Sophon Ting and Chris Douangkham, who at the time were 18, 15 and 16, respectively.

    The prosecution said the teens cased the business before the murders, watching it from inside a nearby furniture store, then entered the store with a .22 caliber rifle with a pistol grip concealed in Phommahaxay’s pants.

    Chief Deputy District Attorney Marlisa Ferreira argued that Douangkham was the primary shooter. She pointed to statements he made to Ting while in the interrogation room at the Modesto Police Department when detectives had left the room and he didn’t know he was being recorded.

    He’d talked to Ting about how Phommahaxay kept missing all the shots and said, “Did you see me lay her out with one hit? I laid that b---- out with one hit.”

    When all three victims lay dying on the floor, the suspects took cash and merchandise before fleeing.

    Following their arrest, Douangkham was found to have particles consistent with gunshot residue on his hand.

    The focus at the monthlong trial was on Douangkham because he was the only defendant to go to trial.

    Ting originally was charged as an adult, but changes in the law since his arrest made it illegal to prosecute anyone under the age of 16 as an adult. He was found guilty of all three murders and robbery in juvenile court. Juvenile offenders under the age of 16 can be incarcerated only up to age 25 or for a period of two years if they are sentenced close to or after age 25. Ting, who is now 26, is expected to be released next month.

    Douangkham also briefly went to a juvenile court because of similar changes in the law that required a judge to determine if a juvenile of any age should be prosecuted as an adult.

    The law changes regarding juveniles was one of the reasons the case was stalled for so many years. Ferreira was also tied up for four years prosecuting the murder case against the late defense attorney Frank Carson.

    Just before the case went to trial at the end of July, Phommahaxay entered a plea agreement. He pleaded guilty to three counts of voluntary manslaughter and robbery and admitted to an enhancement for using a gun. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

    Douangkham also asked for at least one plea agreement, but the prosecution declined, so he went to trial and testified in his defense.

    When he got on the stand, his attorney Stephen Foley told him to look at the jury and tell them if he killed anyone.

    “No, I did not kill nobody. I did not shoot nobody that day. I never fired a firearm that day,” Douangkham answered.

    He testified that he got into the car with Phommahaxay on that day thinking they were going to a birthday party in Ceres but they instead drove to the market. It wasn’t until they were in a parking lot outside of the business that Douangkham showed him and Ting the gun and said they were “going to do a lick,” meaning a robbery.

    “I told him I didn’t want to do it because it was hot already,” Douangkham testified, meaning they’d seen probation officers and Modesto police officers driving in the area.

    Douangkham testified that he and Phommahaxay got into an argument at the furniture store about it and he told him he didn’t want anything to do with the robbery. Douangkham said he refused to take the gun but he still went into the store with Phommahaxay and Ting.

    The Thammavongsas knew Douangkham and his family. Vanh Thammavongsa asked him how his mother was when they walked into the store. When he went to the back of the store, Phouvieng Thammavongsa asked how he was doing.

    On cross examination, Ferreira asked him if he ever tried to warn them, ever tried to call police, ever tried to help any of them get away. Douangkham answered no to all the questions.

    Douangkham testified that he went into the back to get some oysters and had asked Phouvieng Thammavongsa where they were when the shooting started.

    “She tried to grab me and I pushed her … I think she tried to use me as a shield,” he said.

    He said he slapped her in the face, which is what he was referring to 10 years and seven months ago in the interrogation room when he said he “laid her out with one hit.”

    He said he didn’t tell detectives any of this at the time and lied to them at least 20 times because he was afraid of Phommahaxay and of the police.

    The attorneys gave their closing arguments Tuesday.

    Foley said that while Douangkham lied to detectives, he maintained from the very beginning that he never shot anyone. He said Phommahaxay lied and said he wasn’t going to shoot anyone. When the shooting started, he feared for his life, Douangkham said.

    Ferreira said even if the jury believed that Douangkham never fired the gun, he still was a principal player by aiding and abetting in the murders and doing nothing to stop them. That made him a “major participant with reckless indifference to human life” and guilty of first-degree murder, she said.

    “He might want you to think today ‘No, no, no, no I was never a part of this. I just hung out in the store while three people were murdered in front of me because I wanted to buy oysters,’” Ferreira said. “Ladies and gentlemen, that is about the most unreasonable story ever.”

    “They cased (the business), ambushed them; they did everything in order to gain an advantage over that poor family in the store,” she said.

    The jury agreed. After about one day of deliberations, they found Douangkham guilty of three counts of first-degree murder, robbery and burglary on Sept. 8. They also found true special circumstances that he was lying in wait, he committed multiple murders and he did so during the commission of a felony. All of the special circumstances mean he faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Douangkham watched the court clerk with a blank expression as the verdict was read.

    His next court date is scheduled for Sept. 22, when Ferreira is expected to make a decision about whether to pursue the gang charges against Douangkham.

    John Goold, a spokesman for the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, said at the request of the defense, the gang charges were separated from the murder case “to avoid any chance a jury would be influenced ... towards guilt when finding out it’s a gang crime.”

    The criminal complaint at the time of their arrest alleges Phommahaxay, 18, Ting and Douangkham were part of an Asian gang called the CWA Crips, also known as Crips With Attitude.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.mod...254052933.html

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