Trial Date Set for 4 Held in Death of Honor Student

Four teen-agers charged with murdering honor student Stuart A. Tay were ordered Monday to stand trial in January, about a year after the 17-year-old was bludgeoned and buried in a Buena Park back yard.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary set a trial date of Jan. 10.

Tay, of Orange, was beaten with a sledgehammer and baseball bats. Rubbing alcohol was poured down his throat and he was buried in the back yard with his mouth taped shut, police say.

Authorities believe that the boy and his assailants were planning a computer theft, but that the defendants turned on Tay after learning he had lied to them about his name and residence and might have been planning to back out of the scheme.

The defendants are Kirn Kim, 17; Robert Chien-nan Chan, 18; Abraham Acosta, 16, and Mun Bong Kang, 18, all then students at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.