Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : Confession Can Be Used, Judge Rules

In a case that has drawn great attention in Orange County’s Vietnamese community, a Superior Court Judge ruled that a defendant’s confession to Westminster police that he shot a former Saigon housing official can be used against him.

Judge Jean Rheinheimer, rejecting defense claims that police violated defendant Be Tu Van Tran’s right to remain silent, ruled last Tuesday in a pretrial hearing that his statements to police, including the words, “I shot him. I accept responsibility,” be allowed as evidence in the trial.

Tran, 44, is accused of the attempted murder of Tran Khanh Van, who was shot in the stomach and shoulder near his Westminster real estate office on March 18. When Tran was questioned by police, he allegedly admitted that he tailed Van for almost a month and that he wanted to kill him because of his alleged sympathies toward Vietnam’s Communist government, police said.