For Victim’s Family, Grief Is Still Fresh

She hesitated Thursday before walking out of the Orange County Superior courthouse, where she has spent the past four weeks bearing witness as the man who killed her son stood trial.

But the tormenting testimony was in some ways more comforting than what was waiting for her.

“I don’t want to go home,” Dao Huynh said, breaking into tears. “I don’t want to go home and look at his empty room.”

Her Tustin home, and indeed the entire neighborhood where the family has lived since 1983, is full of haunting reminders of their devastating loss.

The tennis courts at Tustin High School, where her son, Thien Minh Ly, was knifed to death while in-line skating on Jan. 28, 1996, are just around the corner from their home.

Huynh said she visits there every Sunday, hoping that, by some miracle, she will see her dead son.

Thai Ly, the victim’s brother, said he too is drawn to the spot where his brother was killed. In a vain attempt to reach his brother’s spirit, Thai Ly, 21, said he often stares up at the sky while lying on the exact spot on the blacktop where his brother was murdered.

More than 18 months have passed since Ly was murdered on the courts at his alma mater. The two men responsible--Domenic Christopher and Gunner Lindberg--have been convicted. Christopher, a juvenile at the time of the killing, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and a jury on Thursday recommended the death penalty for Lindberg.

But in many ways, absolutely nothing has changed since the close-knit family learned that the life of their beloved big brother and revered eldest son had been violently taken away.

“I still feel like my heart gets stabbed every night, the way my brother was stabbed,” said Thu Ly, 23, the victim’s sister. “He [Lindberg] gave my family something worse than the death sentence.”

Coming to terms with the murder has brought the family countless tears. His mother breaks down every time she imagines the pain her son must have felt. His brother continues to search for meaning in the crime. The grief is worsened by the fact the murder was inspired by racial hatred.

“It has affected how I look at human nature,” Thu Ly said. “My brother used to believe there was good in all people. I have come to learn that there are people out there who may not have good in them.”

Police recovered a letter that Lindberg penned to his cousin, shortly after knifing Ly to death, in which he bragged about killing a “Jap” and boasted about enjoying the crime.

The letter became a key piece of evidence during the trial, but each time it was read in open court, the family’s composure crumbled.

Ly’s mother said listening as the child she adored was described with such malice was more than she could bear. And sitting so close to the author was almost impossible.

“It hurt like I was sitting on thorns,” she said.

Ly was a top student at Tustin High School and at UCLA, where he graduated with degrees in biology and English. He earned a master’s degree at Georgetown University specializing in physiology and biophysics. He volunteered often, and was particularly fond of working with the elderly.

If there was a positive side to the trial, said Huynh, it was that sitting in court each day forced her to bring the good memories of her son to life.

It was the only way to counter the pain and horror that the trial conjured up.