Case Against Teen in Tustin Skater Slaying Goes to Jury

Eighteen-year-old Domenic Christopher should be convicted of first-degree murder because he is just as responsible for the death of a former UCLA student leader as the man accused of actually stabbing him, the prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Lloyd said Thien Minh Ly was in-line skating when Christopher and Gunner J. Linberg trapped him in the gated tennis court at Tustin High School in January 1996.

Linberg, 22, who faces trial later this year, decided to rob Ly. He knocked him to the ground, stomped on his head and stabbed him more than a dozen times before slashing his throat, the prosecutor said during closing arguments.

Lloyd said Christopher “aided and abetted” the crime because he knew a robbery was going to take place, helped trap the victim, stood by and encouraged him as the killing took place and then kicked Ly in the head as he was taking his last breaths.

“He’s not just a witness, he’s a participant,” Lloyd said. “He helped in that murder.”

But Christopher’s attorney, Dennis McNerney, presented a different view of what happened. He said his client merely intended to hassle Ly and had no idea that a robbery or a murder was going to take place. He said the prosecution’s case is based on “outrage,” “speculation,” and “one-way interpretation of evidence.”

McNerney admitted his client watched the crime but said he did not report it because he was afraid Linberg would kill him, too.

Lloyd, however, said that when Christopher moved in with Linberg after the murder, he showed he was not afraid of him.

“He’s thinking about how he’ll get away from the police, not Gunner Linberg,” Lloyd said.

Ly, 24, regularly practiced his in-line skating at the tennis court at Tustin High, which he had attended. He graduated from UCLA in 1994, where he was president of the Vietnamese Student Assn. He earned a master’s degree at Georgetown University in Washington.

Following closing arguments, jurors began deliberating. They could reach a verdict of first- or second-degree murder or accessory to murder after the fact.

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Peter Noah.