Views on Motive in Slaying Clash as Trial Opens

Was Thien Minh Ly killed out of racial hatred, or was his murder part of an initiation into the “Insane Criminal Posse,” whose members had to witness or commit a killing in order to join?

Those possibilities were raised by attorneys during the dramatic opening Tuesday of Gunner Lindberg’s murder trial in Orange County Superior Court. He is accused of the 1995 murder of the 24-year-old UCLA and Georgetown University graduate.

Ly was stabbed 14 times around the heart on the tennis courts of Tustin High School, where he had gone to practice in-line skating.

Lindberg “decided to kill him because he was not white,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Lloyd, who is prosecuting the case. “And he enjoyed it.”

Lloyd produced a large reproduction of a chilling letter that the prosecution says Lindberg wrote to a cousin describing the murder in great detail. It included comments such as, “I killed a Jap,” “I slit one side of his throat on his jugular vein,” and “I stomped on his head three times.”

Jurors appeared riveted as Lloyd read from the letter and the victim’s family, overcome with emotion, wept quietly in the back of the courtroom.

Lindberg defense attorney David Zimmerman neither conceded nor denied in his opening remarks that his client committed the murder. He did tell the jury that the crime was not motivated by racial hatred or robbery--the two “special circumstance” allegations that would make Lindberg eligible for the death penalty if convicted.

“Disgusting as you may find [the murder], the evidence will show you that there was another reason why that young man met his death on that tennis court,” Zimmerman said.

The defense attorney told jurors that they would have to “pay very close attention” to the evidence, in particular to the role of Domenic Christopher, Lindberg’s teenage friend who was convicted of first-degree murder last April for his role in the Ly murder.

“Was it an initiation ceremony for this Domenic?” Zimmerman asked, referring to the slaying. “Did you have to kill a person at random under the rules of this gang, the bylaws of the Insane Criminal Posse?”

Among items found in Lindberg’s apartment were a pair of black gloves with dried blood matching the victim’s, a bloody T-shirt, white supremacist literature and a poster for Martin Luther King Day on which was written: “If they would’ve shot four more we could’ve had the whole week off.”

Also found in the room were dozens of pages of poetry about death and Satan, with phrases like, “You must kill to learn” and “The more souls, the more powerful you become.”

The rambling letter read in court Tuesday, dated Feb. 23, 1996, led police to make an arrest in the case. It was filled with graphic detail about the Ly murder that police said revealed firsthand knowledge that only the killer could possess.

Police said Lindberg sent the letter to Walter Ray Dulaney, a cousin in Missouri. Dulaney’s wife, Jenny, testified Tuesday that she saw the letter and, after discussing it with her husband and his mother, agreed that it should be turned over to authorities.

Dulaney told authorities in Missouri that he was shot earlier this year in an attempt to keep him from testifying in his cousin’s trial.

Outside the presence of the jury, Zimmerman told Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald on Tuesday there is no evidence of a “causal connection between my client and the attack on Mr. Dulaney” and asked that the shooting not be mentioned in court.

Prosecutor Lloyd told the judge she has no plans to bring up the incident.

Dulaney was on the witness stand briefly Tuesday but was never sworn in, and a recess was called before he could testify. He reportedly has great concern for his safety.

Extra security was evident throughout the day as courtroom spectators were required to pass through a metal detector before entering. Armed bailiffs were stationed inside and outside the courtroom.

For the victim’s family, the day was difficult and emotionally draining.

“I’m very upset when I see Gunner Lindberg,” said the victim’s mother, Dao Ly.

Outside the courtroom, she spoke of her love for her son and how proud she was of him.

“He was a very good person,” she said. “I really adored him.”