Judge Dismisses Juror in Double-Murder Case : Trial: Accosted by reporter, he is replaced. Taiwanese defendant is accused of killing husband’s mistress, baby.

In an odd turn to a high-profile trial, a juror who was approached by a news reporter was dismissed Tuesday, on the eve of deliberations in the two-month murder case of Li-Yun (Lisa) Peng.

The action came as the prosecution and defense wound up closing arguments in the trial of Peng, a Taiwanese national accused of killing her tycoon husband’s mistress and the woman’s infant son in Mission Viejo in August, 1993.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today in Orange County Superior Court. Peng could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if she is convicted.

The dismissed juror, Roohy Nourbash, 52, of Mission Viejo said that he was handed a business card Tuesday by a reporter for one of the numerous Chinese-language newspapers closely covering the case.

Judge Kathleen E. O’Leary, citing “unauthorized contact,” replaced Nourbash with one of the three alternate jurors but noted that he was not at fault.

The case, with a soap-opera mix of love, money and murder, has attracted sensational coverage in the Chinese community around Los Angeles and has received attention in Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China. A Hong Kong director based a film on the case last year.

Nearly a dozen reporters and photographers, mostly from Chinese-language publications in the San Gabriel Valley, have attended the trial daily since it began in July.

Nourbash, a jeweler, said that one of the reporters handed him a card during lunch and asked to speak with him when the trial is over.

The dismissed juror declined to comment on the case before the panel deliberates. “I don’t think it would be proper,” Nourbash said as he left the courthouse.

The prosecutor capped his case by suggesting that Lisa Peng ambushed Ranbing (Jennifer) Ji, 25, after arranging a face-to-face meeting at the victim’s home.

Ji was stabbed 18 times. Her 5-month-old son, Kevin, who was fathered by Peng’s husband, was found dead in his crib with a T-shirt stuffed in his mouth. A bite mark on Ji’s arm was linked by DNA to Lisa Peng.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko said Peng was fiercely jealous and also saw Ji and the boy as possible threats to her financial hold on the giant Taiwan-based communications firm she owned with her husband, Tseng (Jim) Peng.

“You have hate, vengeance and greed. After all, you’ve got $200 million at stake,” Molko told jurors.

The defense asserted it was Jim Peng who killed Ji in order to avoid a divorce and to save his reputation as an international entrepreneur. The Pengs lived in Taiwan and owned Ranger Communications, which has operations in San Diego, Europe and Asia.

Defense attorney Marshall M. Schulman said the murder scene showed no signs of struggle, indicating that the victim was attacked by someone she trusted enough to let into her home.

“He entered that apartment, and he did what he did to save his business,” Schulman told jurors during closing arguments. Jim Peng did not return from Taiwan to testify.

Prosecutors said Jim Peng was en route from Asia at the time of the killing, but the defense argued that the time of death was not determined with enough certainty to rule out Jim Peng. Lisa Peng was already at the home the Pengs owned in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Jim Peng and Ji met in mainland China in 1990 and began a three-year love affair soon after. Ji, who was employed at Ranger Communications for a time, moved into a Mission Viejo apartment that Jim Peng kept for her.