Tay Case Indictments Speed Pace for Prosecution

An Orange County Grand Jury on Monday indicted four teen-agers accused of killing 17-year-old honor student Stuart Tay, quickening the pace for the prosecution, the district attorney’s office announced Tuesday.

“It’s a lot faster and it’s a lot more efficient,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum said, estimating that he cut six to eight months out of the legal process by obtaining the indictment. “Can you imagine how long it would take with four defense attorneys cross-examining each witness? It would have gone on forever.”

Abraham Acosta, 16, Robert Chan, 18, Mun Kang, 17, and Kirn Kim, 17--all students at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton--will be arraigned in Orange County Superior Court Friday morning on charges of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait for the brutal New Year’s Eve slaying.

Under a state law passed several years ago, the district attorney’s office routinely asks grand juries to indict suspects in order to bypass preliminary hearings, in which prosecutors must prove to a judge that a crime was committed and that there is enough evidence to link the defendants to the crime.

Though a judge determined last week that all four will be tried as adults, Chan is the only one eligible for the death penalty because of his age. The others face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Charles Choe, 17, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in juvenile court last week, testified against the four others in a grand jury hearing that lasted three days. Rosenblum allowed Choe’s case to remain in juvenile court--where convicted offenders remain in custody only until their 25th birthday--in exchange for his promise to testify.

“I am pleased with the indictment . . . it doesn’t get any better, though,” the victim’s mother, Orange resident Linda Tay, said in an interview Tuesday. “The whole thing still seems pretty senseless to me.”

Acosta and Chan, who allegedly beat Tay for 20 minutes with baseball bats and a sledgehammer, face additional charges of using a deadly weapon, and of committing murder for financial gain.

The suspects told police that Chan promised Acosta $200 for assisting in the slaying and then burying Tay’s body in his Buena Park back yard; after the killing, Chan did give Acosta $100 from the victim’s wallet.

Defense attorneys said Tuesday they are not surprised by the indictment and that they do not consider it a major blow to their case.

Rosenblum said he hopes to try the four suspects together, though he expects their four defense attorneys to want to separate the cases.