WEST HILLS : 30-Year Sentence in Fatal Party Shooting

A 19-year-old party crasher who shot and killed a West Hills man when he fired a 9-millimeter pistol into the crowd of party-goers was sentenced to 30 years to life in state prison on Friday.

Superior Court Judge Michael R. Hoff gave Vu Anhgoc Pham the maximum sentence possible after watching family videos and hearing emotional statements from the parents of the victim, Thomas Myers, 25.

The judge rejected a plea for mercy from Pham’s lawyer, Seymour I. Amster, who claimed Pham had known nothing but violence and fear growing up in Vietnam. His father died in a prison camp, and Pham witnessed several robberies and killings as a child, the defense lawyer said in court papers.

At his trial, Pham had told the jury he fired the weapon in self defense during a bottle-throwing melee at the crowded party in Canoga Park. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Franco A. Baratta persuaded jurors Pham was firing at another party-goer when Myers stepped into the line of fire.

The July 24, 1993, fracas began when about 20 youths, some of them gang members, attempted to crash a large party at Farralone Avenue and Vanowen Street. One of the crashers stopped to urinate against a tree, and became enraged when a female party-goer greeted him with a racial slur.

The crasher retrieved a weapon from his car and began firing it in the air as another party-goer ordered the youths off the property.

Pham and several other crashers began to chant, “Shoot him! Shoot him! Shoot him!” and Pham wrested the gun away and fired a half-dozen shots toward the man who was ordering him to leave, Baratta said.

A bullet struck Myers, an avid surfer and snowboarder, in the chest as he stepped through the front door.

Police identified Pham as a gang member--which he denies, according to a probation report. The report also states that Pham was previously arrested twice over accusations of theft and once on suspicion of attempted murder as a juvenile.