Taiwanese Woman’s Murder Trial Opens

The prosecution depicted an international love triangle turned deadly as the trial opened Monday for a Taiwanese national accused of murdering her millionaire husband’s young mistress and the woman’s child in Mission Viejo two years ago.

Li-Yun (Lisa) Peng, 45, dabbed away tears as the prosecutor traced her failed attempts to end the three-year love affair between her husband and his mistress, Ranbing (Jennifer) Ji, who was 25 when she was stabbed to death.

Lisa Peng “was intent on not letting Jennifer and her husband get together at any cost,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko told jurors during his opening statement in Orange County Superior Court. “There was frustration. There was jealousy.”

Peng, who also stands accused of killing Ji’s 5-month-old son, Kevin, by stuffing a T-shirt in his mouth, faces life in prison without possibility of parole if convicted.

Peng has pleaded innocent to the charges and her attorney will unveil the defense during opening statements today..

The case has been covered closely by the Chinese-language press in Southern California and sparked interest in Taiwan, where the Pengs lived and owned a multinational communications firm, and in mainland China, where Ji grew up. A Hong Kong director made a fictional film based on the murder case last year.

Courtroom spectators included a Chinese magazine writer and relatives of Jennifer Ji, who lived in the city of Quindao, China, before she moved to Orange County.

Molko displayed maps on television monitors to introduce jurors to China and Taiwan and used another chart to explain transoceanic time differences.

The same television monitors also were used to explain the crucial DNA evidence that the prosecution said links Lisa Peng’s saliva to a bite mark on Ji’s left arm.

The prosecutor spent most of the day detailing the affair between Ji and 52-year-old Tseng (Jim) Peng--and its destructive effect on Lisa Peng. Jim Peng met Ji during a 1990 business trip to Quindao, where Ji worked as a hotel marketing specialist.

“Jim Peng appeared to be smitten,” Molko said. “That was the beginning of a three-year love affair.”

Jim Peng hired Ji to work for his radio company, Ranger Communications, and later moved her to an apartment in Mission Viejo, a few miles from the Rancho Santa Margarita house where he and Lisa Peng stayed during visits to the United States.

Jim Peng fathered Ji’s son, Kevin, Molko said.

Molko said Lisa Peng was so jealous over the affair that she once attempted suicide. When she discovered Ji’s clothes in her closet, Lisa Peng cut them to pieces with scissors, Molko said.

“She was not going to let Jennifer win,” Molko said.

Molko said Lisa Peng tracked Ji to the Mission Viejo apartment and killed her on Aug. 18, 1993. Jim Peng, en route from Asia at the time of the slayings, arrived at Ji’s apartment that night to find her dead on the couch with 18 stab wounds, Molko said. The infant was found by police, suffocated in his crib.

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As Molko was wrapping up his opening statement, the defense lawyer accused him of racism when the prosecutor said, “There was hate and vengeance. And under our law, that is first-degree murder.”

Outside the jury’s presence, defense lawyer Marshall Schulman said the remark “our law” was meant to underline that Lisa Peng is a foreigner. Molko denied any such attempt and said he resented the charge.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Leary said she detected nothing in Molko’s tone to back the racism allegation and turned away the defense’s objection.