Ip Goes on Trial in Fatal Shooting

A prosecutor described the death of a 15-year-old boy last summer as “a drive-by shooting” during the first day of the murder trial of Roger Sing Ip on Thursday. Ip, 33, of Spring Valley, is accused of killing Kurt Yokes of La Jolla on July 10, 1989.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg McClain called the crime “senseless,” and said it occurred after a near-collision between the vehicle in which Yokes was riding and Ip’s car.

Ip’s attorney, William Fletcher, told Superior Court jurors and Judge Herbert Exarhos that the incident occurred after Ip counted the receipts at the Pacific Beach restaurant he co-owned, and carried the money and a weapon to his Isuzu Trooper.

Fletcher said Ip’s car and the other car nearly collided about 11:30 p.m., and “the female driver extended her middle finger to the driver of the Isuzu Trooper.”

Ip looked sternly at the occupants, but did not say or do anything, Fletcher said, and another remark was made by another passenger in Yokes car.

Ip followed the car because he wanted to talk to the occupants about the “disrespect shown to him and the community” with the angry exchanges, Fletcher said.

“In his culture, when an individual is disrespectful, you talk to that individual. At no time did he think of harm or any violent act,” said the defense attorney. Ip is Chinese and was born in Hong Kong.

Fletcher did not discuss the shooting itself, but said that Ip drove from the scene not knowing that someone had been killed or injured. “Mr. Ip learned through the media . . . that Mr. Yokes had been killed,” Fletcher said.

McClain said Ip left the county and tried to get a passport from the British consulate. Ip is a British subject. However, he returned to San Diego about 2 1/2 weeks later and surrendered at the courthouse.