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Thread: Ronald Tri Tran - California Death Row

  1. #1
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    Ronald Tri Tran - California Death Row


    Ronald Tri Tran

    Facts of the Crime:

    November 9, 1995 – Two men, Ronald Tri Tran and Noel Jesse Plata, break into the Parks' house. After forcing Linda Park, 18, to guide them to the family's valuables, they killed her and fled.

    March 2001 – Tran and Plata arrested and charged in Orange County.

    November 2007 – Jury finds Tran and Plata guilty and recommends the death penalty.

    August 26, 2008 – Before the judge hands down a death sentence to both men, Tran apologizes to the Parks and to his own family.

    For more on Plata, who died of natural causes on December 14, 2020, see: http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/...rnia-Death-Row

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    August 27, 2008

    Noel Plata and Ronald Tran Sentenced to Death

    There are now 47 O.C. killers on death row----3 OC murderers have been executed in the last 30 years

    Convicted murderers Noel Jesse Plata and Ronald Tri Tran on Friday joined 45 other Orange County killers – including one woman – on California's death row.

    Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg confirmed a unanimous jury verdict handed down in 2007 that recommended death for Plata and Tran, now both 33, for torturing and strangling Linda Park, an 18-year-old-old college student, during a home-invasion robbery in her Irvine home in 1995.

    They became the 2nd and 3rd Orange County killers to receive a death sentence since 2005.

    Death sentences are, however, pending against 3 other men:

    Michael Lamb, 33, convicted earlier this year of the lying-in-wait, execution-style, retaliation slaying of a former gang colleague in 2002 for revealing gang secrets

    Steven Carl Evans, 62, a life-time sex registrant who was convicted in July of the sexual assault and stabbing murder of a 24-year-old Tujunga woman in his trailer in 2003.

    Benjamin Wayne Watta, 62, found guilty in June of the 1980 sexual assault and suffocation murder of Simone Sharpe, 70, in her Seal Beach neighborhood.

    Since 2000, Orange County juries have recommended 16 death sentences for men who committed such special circumstances murders as killing police officers, multiple murders, murders by lying-in-wait, torture or murders during sexual assault, robbery and burglary.

    There are also currently special circumstances/death penalty charges pending in Orange County against about 15 other defendants.

    Since 1978, when the death penalty was reinstated in California after another lengthy moratorium on executions, only 3 defendants sentenced by Orange County judges have been executed.

    There are now close to 700 inmates in the state awaiting execution. Some have been in prison since the 1970s.

    The last 11 defendants recommended for death in Orange County are:

    2008

    Anthony Navarro of San Fernando, was sentenced to death on July 19 for his role in the kidnapping and murder-for-hire of David Montemayor, a 44-year-old Buena Park businessman, in 2002.

    2005

    Tupoutoe Mataele of Norwalk, was sentenced to die for shooting Danell Johnson, an Anaheim acquaintance, at point-blank range in 1997 while shaking Johnson's hand. Special circumstances: murder by lying-in-wait.

    Alejandro Avila of Lake Elsinore, was given the death penalty for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering 5-year-old Samantha Runnion in July 2002.

    2004

    Maurice Steskal, a Bible-reading, marijuana-smoking ex-convict with a lifelong hatred of cops, was sentenced to death Feb. 6, 2004, for the assault-rifle ambush of Orange County Deputy Bradley J. Riches in 1999.

    2003

    Victor Miranda-Guerrero, was convicted of raping and murdering Bridgette Ballas, 29, on a Huntington Beach street in 1999.

    Dung Dinh Anh Trinh, who dared jurors in 3 penalty-phase hearings to vote for death, got his wish when he was sentenced for killing 3 employees of an Anaheim hospital in 1999 hours after his mother died.

    2002

    John Samuel Ghobrial, an Egyptian national and a panhandler who had been living in a shed, got death for molesting and dismembering Juan Delgado, a 12-year-old La Habra boy, in March 1998, and scattering his remains in concrete cylinders.

    2000

    Gary Brents, an Anaheim pimp, was sentenced to die for his role in beating 26-year-old Kelly Ann Fordon, shoving her in the trunk of a car and setting it on fire while she was still alive.

    Kevin Boyce, a member of the Crips street gang, received the death penalty for murdering Shayne York, an off-duty Los Angeles County deputy, after finding York's badge during a 1997 hair salon robbery in Buena Park. Boyce kicked York in the side, called him a "pig" and shot him in the back of the head.

    Hung Thanh Mai was sentenced to death for the unprovoked shooting of California Highway Patrol officer Donald Burt Jr. during a traffic stop in 1996. Mai shot Burt 6 times and then placed a gun next to the fallen officer's head and fired a 7th bullet into his skull.

    John George Brown was resentenced to death for killing a Garden Grove police officer and wounding 4 other people in a bar in 1980. The state Supreme Court overturned Brown's 1982 death sentence in 1998, but a 2nd penalty phase also led to a death sentence.

    (Source: The Orange County Register)

  3. #3
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Counsel was appointed to represent Tran on direct appeal before the California Supreme Court on April 16, 2013.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...NRMCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    On April 19, 2018, a prosecution response to Tran's initial brief was filed.

    http://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca.g...NRMCAgCg%3D%3D

  5. #5
    Senior Member CnCP Legend JLR's Avatar
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    Tran's direct appeal has been fully briefed since the 14th of June 2019.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....NRMCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On May 25, 2022, oral argument will be heard in Tran's direct appeal before the California Supreme Court.

    https://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/...s/SMAY2422.PDF

  7. #7
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Conviction and death sentence affirmed on direct appeal.

    https://law.justia.com/cases/califor...2/s165998.html
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  8. #8
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    On June 24, 2022, Tran filed a habeas petition before the California Supreme Court.

    https://appellatecases.courtinfo.ca....hSQCAgCg%3D%3D

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    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    California Supreme Court Upholds Death Penalty in Irvine Murder

    By City News Service

    SANTA ANA (CNS) - State Supreme Court justices Monday upheld the death sentence for a 47-year-old man convicted of the torture-murder of an 18-year-old woman in Irvine in 1995.

    The state's highest court, however, reversed a gang enhancement for Ronald Tri Tran due to recent changes in the law.

    Co-defendant Noel Jesse Plata, who was also sentenced to death for the murder of Linda Park, died Dec. 14, 2020, while in prison.

    The two went to Park's home to steal cash and valuables and when they found her there they tied her up and slashed her neck to compel her to lead them to the loot, according to the court's ruling. Evidence at trial showed that the victim could have died from the slashing of the neck but it would have taken a long time to bleed out, according to the ruling.

    Park was strangled with an electrical cord, according to evidence from the trial.

    The victim's father had a habit of stuffing hundreds of dollars in a jacket in a master bedroom closet for the family to take petty cash from when necessary. That cash and the victim's mother's jewelry were taken.

    Investigators found some of Tran's DNA on twine used to bind Park, according to the ruling.

    However, prosecutors made their case based on statements Tran and Plata made to friends as well as to a confidential informant in the Santa Ana jail, who was working undercover for authorities in what is known as a Perkins operation.

    The informant, Qui Ly, told investigators that while being held in Anaheim's jail in October and November in 1997 with Tran the defendant told him about the murder. Ly was facing a 31 years to life in prison burglary case because of prior strikes so he came forward to try to get a break from prosecutors.

    Investigators then put Ly in a cell in Santa Ana jail with Tran and Plata and recorded their conversations.

    Tran's girlfriend in 1995, Joann Nguyen, testified that she was friends with Park in high school, but after they attended Irvine Valley College they drifted apart.

    "When Tran asked if Nguyen knew anyone with money or jewelry, Nguyen said that Linda (Park) had some., and she drove Tran by Linda's home after he said that he was going to rob Linda," according to the ruling. "Nguyen said that Linda had never told her where her father kept money or her mother kept jewelry."

    Tran switched cars with Nguyen on Nov. 9, 1995, because he thought his car would look too suspicious in the Irvine neighborhood, the court ruled. Later that night when the two men returned she said they were "anxious and hyper" and Tran told her "they had robbed and killed Linda," according to the ruling.

    Tran later told Nguyen that she was killed because he did not want her to identify him, according to the ruling

    "After Linda's death, Tran received a new tattoo on the side of his neck, which he told Nguyen said, `Forgive me' in Korean," the ruling said.

    The state's high court rejected arguments from the defense about juror misconduct, the decision to try both together, and admission of hearsay evidence through a gang expert. The jury foreman wrote a three-page document summarizing his views of the case, which included a news report he saw on the death penalty in the state during the trial. The judge did not find it amounted to juror misconduct.

    https://kfiam640.iheart.com/content/...irvine-murder/
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