3 Face Trial in Chinatown Holdup Deaths : Officer, 2 Suspects Were Killed During Jewelry Store Shoot-Out

Three suspects were ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges stemming from the Chinatown jewelry store shoot-out last December in which a Los Angeles police officer and two holdup suspects were slain.

Hau Cheong Chan, 29, of Alhambra and Sang Nam Chinh, 19, of Rosemead are each charged with three counts of murder in the gun battle at the Jin Hing Co. jewelry store that left Officer Duane Johnson and suspects Robert Woo and Peter Chin dead.

Thong Huynh, 21, of Rosemead is charged with one count of accessory to murder for allegedly hiding Chinh following the robbery.

Robbery Counts

Chan and Chinh were also held to answer by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Samuel Mayerson on robbery counts stemming from both the Chinatown shoot-out and other unrelated incidents. If convicted of murdering Johnson, the pair, both of whom are being held without bail, could each face the death penalty.

During the preliminary hearing, which lasted more than two weeks, witnesses included Johnson’s partner, police Officer Archie Nagao, who was shot through the neck but survived the fierce gun battle.

Nagao, 29, described being shot from a distance of about three feet after having entered the Bamboo Lane shop along with Johnson in response to a silent alarm received at the nearby Chinatown police substation. The officers were walking toward the back of the store when a man dressed in a blue suit who had let them in the store fired at Nagao.

‘Gun to My Head’

“I turned around, and I observed the person . . . walking toward me at a very fast pace,” Nagao calmly recalled. “He pointed his gun to my head. I then heard a shot, and I felt a burning sensation in my neck.”

Nagao fired back and the man, whom Deputy Dist Atty. Robert Morrell identified as the slain Chin, fell to the ground.

While bleeding from his wound, Nagao said, he moved back toward the front of the store, took cover behind a display case and reloaded his weapon. Subsequently, Nagao engaged in a battle with a second suspect, whom he had spotted at the other end of the display case.

Nagao could not identify the suspect, who fled toward the back of the store.

Other witnesses included shop owner Leon Lee, who police say got his pistol from its hiding place during the gun battle and shot and killed Woo, and Lee’s son Robert, who was wounded in the chest during the shoot-out.

Conflicting Testimony

Although conflicting testimony was given concerning whether Chan or Chinh was in the shop during the robbery, Mayerson ruled that there was sufficient evidence to hold them both for trial.

Testimony showed that the gun used to kill Johnson had been purchased by Chan, but Morrell would not comment on whether he thought Chan or Chinh actually fired the bullets that killed the 27-year-old officer. When police arrested Chinh a day after the shoot-out at a residence he shared with Huynh, Chinh had bullet wounds on his head, back and chin.

In ordering Huynh to stand trial, Mayerson also ruled that a confessional statement that the defendant made to police cannot be be used during his trial.

Huynh’s attorney, Michael Yamaki, successfully argued that Huynh, who is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail, had not properly received his Miranda rights against self-incrimination because a police officer recited them in a dialect of Chinese different than the one Huynh speaks. During the hearing, two court-appointed interpreters testified that the Toishan dialect spoken by the officer is, in essence, a different language than the Cantonese dialect Huynh speaks.

The trio are scheduled for arraignment May 8 in Los Angeles Superior Court.