Attorneys Say Teens Were Pawns in Scheme to Kill Tay : Courts: Roles of Abraham Acosta and Kirn Kim are downplayed, but prosecutor counters they were well aware of the plot. Jury is expected to begin deliberations today.

One teen-ager who acted as a lookout and another who landed the first blow should be spared murder convictions in the 1992 New Year’s Eve slaying of honor student Stuart A. Tay, their attorneys said Tuesday.

Abraham Acosta, 17, of Buena Park and Kirn Kim, 18, of Fullerton were unwitting pawns caught up in a murder scheme hatched by another teen-ager, who has since been convicted of orchestrating Tay’s death, defense attorneys told the Orange County Superior Court jury during closing arguments Tuesday.

Defense attorneys downplayed their clients’ roles in the murder by shifting the blame to Robert Chan, 19, of Fullerton, a onetime high school valedictorian who was convicted in May of organizing the murder.

Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg told jurors that Acosta is a mentally disabled youth who was “easily led” into participating in what he believed was a prank to scare Tay but never believed a murder would take place.

“Robert Chan used Abraham Acosta,” Gragg told jurors. “Who better to use than someone far below you in maturity and intelligence?”

Gragg said jurors, who are expected to begin deliberating today, should convict Acosta of assault with a deadly weapon.

Defense attorney Allan H. Stokke asked jurors to find his client guilty only of being an accessory to murder after the killing had occurred.

Stokke said Kim considered Chan a “big talker” who bragged about involvement in crimes but never actually committed them. Kim also dismissed Chan’s talk about killing Tay as bragging, and had no idea Tay was being beaten to death while Kim waited outside Acosta’s home, Stokke said.

“It’s unfair, it’s not reasonable and it’s not just” to convict Kim of murder, Stokke said, adding that a murder conviction would be like “killing” the defendant. “Don’t make Kirn Kim into another victim. . . . We’ve got enough victims of Robert Chan’s twisted mind.”

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis R. Rosenblum blasted attempts to portray Kim and Acosta as victims, saying they were well aware of and played key roles in a sophisticated murder scheme.

Acosta helped dig a grave in his back yard the day before the slaying and participated in a rehearsal of the slaying, Rosenblum said. Kim acted as a lookout and dumped Tay’s sports car in Compton to make it appear Tay had been the victim of a carjacking, Rosenblum said.

If Acosta and Kim truly did not know a murder was underway, Rosenblum told jurors, they had an obligation to call police or halt the scheme. Instead, Acosta was paid $100 and Kim received $20--money Chan took from Tay’s wallet, Rosenblum told jurors.

“There comes a point in time where people must be held accountable for the choices they make,” Rosenblum said.

Chan faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced this summer. Mun Bong Kang, 19, also of Fullerton, pleaded guilty in May and faces the same sentence for his role in the slaying.

The four teens have been prosecuted as adults. A fifth defendant, Charles Choe, 18, of Fullerton, was prosecuted as a juvenile after he agreed to testify against his former co-defendants.

The defendants attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. Tay attended Foothill High School in Santa Ana.

Chan and Tay became friends while planning to rob an Anaheim computer-parts dealer. Chan later turned on the victim when he feared Tay was a police informant.

Tay was beaten unconscious with baseball bats before he was forced to drink rubbing alcohol and had his nose and mouth taped shut. He was buried in a shallow grave in Acosta’s back yard.