One of 5 Teen-Agers Charged in Student’s Death Pleads Guilty

Charles Bae Choe, 17, one of five teen-agers accused in the brutal New Year’s Eve slaying of honor student Stuart Tay, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in Juvenile Court, promising to testify against the other youths.

Choe, who told police he helped plan the murder and then stood in an adjacent room as Tay was beaten with baseball bats and a sledgehammer for 20 minutes, was the only suspect offered a plea bargain, defense attorneys said. By pleading guilty and testifying about the killing, Choe assured that his case will remain in the juvenile justice system, where the maximum penalty will keep him imprisoned only until his 25th birthday.

The other juvenile defendants--two of whom have already been ordered to stand trial as adults--face the possibility of life in prison without possibility of parole. The accused ringleader in the slaying, 18-year-old Robert Chan, is subject to the death penalty.

With his parents crying behind him, the bespectacled, handcuffed Choe agreed in court that he had joined the other defendants “in the premeditated and deliberate murder of Stuart Tay, a human being.”

Neither Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum nor Choe’s lawyer, Angela Oh, would explain why Choe was offered the plea bargain or disclose the details of the secret agreement.

“You could say it’s a great victory, but on the other hand it’s very bittersweet. I’m not feeling very victorious right now,” Oh said after Choe’s hearing. “A life has been lost and it was a brutal killing. But no amount of sacrifice on the parts of these kids is going to bring the life of Stuart Tay back.”

Upon hearing Choe’s admission of the murder, Sook Kim, the mother of defendant Kirn Kim, burst into sobs and ran from the courtroom. Later Wednesday, she and her husband took the stand to describe their son’s immaturity and beg the judge to keep him in the juvenile court.