Police Say Slain Youth, Killers Planned a Theft : Crime: Orange honor student was fatally bludgeoned out of mistrust by others in the plot, they say.

Stuart Anthony Tay, a 17-year-old honors student and Ivy League hopeful, was bludgeoned to death New Year’s Eve by fellow students with whom he had been planning a computer equipment robbery, police said.

The five teen-agers arrested in the murder, including a member of a Fullerton high school’s academic decathlon team, killed Tay in the garage of one student’s Buena Park residence after learning that Tay had lied to them about his identity and they began to worry that he might “burn them in some fashion,” according to homicide investigators.

Police said four of the five arrested youths, all of whom attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, had confessed to roles in the killing or in disposing of the dead youth’s red Nissan 300ZX, which was found abandoned in Compton.

The murder of the well-known Foothill High School student and the arrest of five students from Sunny Hills stunned classmates and teachers at both schools.

“The whole school is devastated,” said Janis Jones, Foothill’s principal. “And, as this story continues to unfold, there is a sense of disbelief. The Stuart Tay we remember was a fine, intelligent young man.”

A different portrait of Tay emerges in a court affidavit filed by Orange police. Two police detectives said they had learned that Tay was involved in a “plan to commit a robbery . . . of an individual who owns computer equipment in Anaheim.”

Police first became involved in the case when Tay’s mother, Linda Tay, reported him missing on New Year’s Day. The mother began to worry about her son after he failed to return from “an errand” and did not call back when she had beeped the electronic pager he frequently wore on his belt.

In addition to reporting him missing, the Tays’ family attorney, Edward Djang, hired a private detective to assist in the search.

The boy’s 1990 Nissan 300ZX was discovered in Compton on Jan. 2, and its stripped and burned condition prompted speculation that he had been the victim of a carjacking. Homicide detectives in Orange now believe “the suspects took (the car) up there for a ruse” to throw investigators off track.

Police said they eventually learned that after leaving his home in Orange on New Year’s Eve, Tay went to meet his would-be fellow robbers in Buena Park, where he was expecting to take possession of a handgun he wanted to purchase.

But his co-conspirators had already made plans to kill him for falsely introducing himself as “Martin” when they met and began planning the robbery, police said.

According to a police affidavit filed Monday in Municipal Court in Santa Ana, where a search warrant was issued, two of the five suspects dug a shallow grave behind the garage at the Buena Park house at 6121 Fullerton Ave. Lt. Timm Browne of the Orange Police Department said the grave was ready and waiting when Tay arrived. A neighbor who happened by during the digging was told that the grave was being readied for a dog that had died.

Homicide investigators said Tay, accompanied by at least three of the other youths, went into a detached garage at the house and was told that the handgun he wanted to purchase was in a box that had been placed in the garage. “When (Tay) bent over to look at (the) box he was bludgeoned to death,” Browne said.

Police said they had no idea what Tay planned to do with the weapon.

Police detectives said that after the killing, Robert Chiennan Chan, 18, arranged for one of the other teen-agers to drive Tay’s car to Compton and gave the driver rubber gloves so he would not leave fingerprints in the vehicle.

Police had only sketchy details of the planned computer parts robbery. Browne said the robbery was supposed to have taken place in Anaheim, but “whether it was (at) a home or business they don’t know.”

Orange police detectives said they got their first real break in the case from Santa Ana private detective Lee Roberts, whom Tay’s family had hired to help locate their missing son. In questioning Tay’s friends, the private detective learned that one of the youths eventually arrested for the crime had told some of his friends about witnessing a murder.

The detective provided police with the youth’s name, and the youth was summoned to the Police Department. After the 16-year-old from Fullerton was questioned by police, he led them to the Buena Park home, where a second suspect lived with his mother.

Of the five teen-agers, police identified only Chan, who is an adult under state law. The names of the others were withheld because they are juveniles.

The juveniles were identified only as a 16-year-old from Buena Park, a 16-year-old from Fullerton and two 17-year-olds from Fullerton. An assistant district attorney said they would all be formally charged in court today.

Police declined to say who among the suspects actually bludgeoned Tay, or if any of the suspects was the chief orchestrator of the murder plot.

“We believe all five were present” during the killing, Browne said. “As to how many struck blows on Mr. Tay would be conjecture at this point.”

Tay family lawyer Djang said Tay’s mother, father and younger sister were in seclusion Tuesday with a few relatives.

“It’s just terrible,” said Djang, who has known the family for more than seven years and who said Tay had never been in trouble with the law before.

“The family really doesn’t understand what has happened. It doesn’t make sense. We’re all sort of numb, just blown away by what has happened.”

Indeed, the apparent premeditated murder and fatal beating stand in stark contrast to the relatively privileged and successful lives of most of the suspects and the victim.

Tay and Chan were known as bright students, both of whom had applied to attend Princeton University after graduation.

An honor roll student, Chan was on the Sunny Hills High academic decathlon team, which placed fourth overall in its region in the December competition, according to the Orange County Department of Education. In the individual competitions, Chan placed fifth in the fine arts category.

Chan’s street, Peacock Lane, is in a peaceful, leafy development of large homes in northwest Fullerton’s affluent Sunny Hills section. Neighbors described the family as quiet and nice, gracious enough to give their mailman a bottle of cognac for Christmas.

A few years ago, Chan would occasionally join neighborhood kids in games of soccer on the cul-de-sac where they live, and he was still exchanging greetings with some neighbors.

“It’s a shock to me,” said one neighbor who knows the Chan family. “He has never been in trouble before, and his family is very nice.”

Some students at Sunny Hills High School portrayed Chan as someone who boasted of having connections with Asian gangs. One student, who requested anonymity, said both Chan and some of his friends claimed to be affiliated with a Chinese Mafia-like gang whose members were students at Sunny Hills, Buena Park and Fullerton High Schools.

Meanwhile, at Foothill High School, students observed a moment of silence for Tay on Tuesday. A crisis team of counselors, teachers and a psychologist was formed to talk to students about the situation and their feelings.

“There is a solemn quietness around the campus,” said Genevieve Koerner, Tay’s counselor for the last four years. “Stuart was a very complex, very intelligent young man,” Koerner said.

Tay, who ranked 32nd in his class of 283, was involved in many extracurricular activities. He was a founder of the Asian Culture Club and a member of the Key Club, the Junior Statesmen of America and the Boy Scouts.

Teachers said that in addition to his intellect, Tay had a talent for computers and was always willing to help people out at school when they experienced computer problems. In fact, Tay often brought a laptop computer to class to take notes.

“His handwriting was so bad,” said Joan Casper, Tay’s 11th-grade English teacher, with a smile.

School officials said Tay had applied for early admission to Princeton, but the university deferred his application and was going to consider it with all the others in the spring. He told his teachers that he wanted to be a doctor, like his father.

Police said Tay met the five teen-aged suspects several weeks ago through their mutual interest in computers. It was not clear to police exactly how long the suspects had known Tay or where they met. After obtaining the search warrant on Monday, police recovered Tay’s body from the freshly dug grave. Homicide investigators are still searching for the weapon, possibly a blunt instrument like a baseball bat, that was used to kill Tay, Lt. Browne said.

Browne said investigators would urge that the district attorney’s office try to have the four juveniles tried as adults. Assistant Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum declined to comment on the case except to say that he expected to file charges today.

Juvenile Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno said he did not know if the four juveniles suspected in the murder would be tried as adults. He said he expected the four to be arraigned today in Juvenile Court in Orange. They were being held without bail in Juvenile Hall in Orange.

Chan, who was being held in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana in lieu of $250,000 bail, was scheduled to be arraigned today in Municipal Court in Santa Ana.

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Catherine Gewertz, Mimi Ko, Tom McQueeney, Jodi Wilgoren and Rene Lynch.