Lawyer Says Client Lied About Shooting : He Claims Viet Refugee Confessed to Attack to Become a ‘Martyr’

A Vietnamese refugee who confessed that he shot and wounded a former Saigon housing official in Westminster four months ago was accused Wednesday by his own attorney of lying.

Alan May, who represents Be Tu Van Tran, told jurors that Tran is falsely claiming responsibility for the March 18 shooting of Tran Khanh Van because “he wants to be a political martyr.” Van also is lying when he claims that Tran was the shooter, May said, because Van also is trying to advance the idea that it was an attempted political assassination.

Tran, 30, a former English teacher in Vietnam, told Westminster police that he shot Van, a 44-year-old real estate broker, near Van’s office because of Van’s reported sympathies toward Vietnam’s Communist government.

“I shoot him; I accept responsibility,” Tran told the police.

Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations today on a single charge of attempted murder against Tran.

Tran, who did not testify, apparently continues to maintain that he was the shooter.

“Don’t you think I would have put him on the stand if I thought he would claim that confession was false?” May said outside the courtroom.

Van, who is recovering from gunshot wounds to his stomach and shoulder, testified at the trial in Superior Court Judge Jean Rheinheimer’s courtroom last week that Tran had shot him.

But May contends that Tran’s confession is not supported by any corroborating evidence. May also emphasized to jurors that Tran did not go to the police and confess on March 19, the day after the shooting, because there had been no newspaper publicity about it then. The incident was not reported in the newspapers until March 20, the day Tran confessed. May contends that Tran’s only knowledge about what happened came from news accounts.

Tran did not go to the police voluntarily with his confession. He made his statements after he was picked up for questioning. A witness had spotted the license plate number of his car near Van’s Santa Ana home the day he was shot.

Tran told police that he was a strong anti-communist and that he had been stalking Van for a month because of statements he made to the Los Angeles Times suggesting that the United States normalize relations with the Communist government in Vietnam. Van claims he only meant to suggest that such diplomatic ties might secure the release of political prisoners and improve humanitarian aid to Vietnam.

A co-defendant, Cu Ngoc Duong, who allegedly drove Tran in a borrowed car the night of the shooting, is charged with being an accessory to attempted murder. His trial is expected to follow Tran’s.