Inmate Faces Charges of Murder for Hire

The man accused of the 1996 killing of CHP Officer Don J. Burt has been charged with plotting the murder for hire of witnesses in his and other murder trials and trafficking high-powered guns from his Orange County Jail cell, officials announced Tuesday.

One of the man’s alleged accomplices is a veteran private investigator working on his defense and who is now charged with conspiring to commit murder for hire.

Five others were arrested in Orange and Los Angeles counties Monday as part of the wide-ranging investigation by several agencies into an alleged gun-trafficking ring that Hung “Henry” Thanh Mai was accused of running from jail.

During the probe into the sales of high-powered weaponry by Mai, an undercover Santa Ana police officer was solicited by Mai to kill a witness, law enforcement officials announced at a news conference.

In January, when the same undercover officer took a gun he had bought through Mai for inspection at the Santa Ana police shooting range, range master Joseph Samuel Boyd was killed when the weapon--an illegal MAC-10 9-millimeter assault gun--misfired, one police source said.

“My hope [is] that the result of this investigation will provide some measure of solace to the families of California Highway Patrol Officer Donald Burt and Santa Ana range Officer Joseph Boyd,” Richard Curd, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said at the news conference.

Authorities said Tuesday that Orange County homicide prosecutor Chris Evans also was an intended target in the murder-for-hire conspiracy but they would not elaborate, citing the pending investigation. Evans also declined comment. No charges regarding that allegation were filed.

A federal affidavit released Tuesday outlined an array of allegations against Mai, 27, an alleged gang member charged with shooting rookie officer Burt seven times during a routine traffic stop in Fullerton on July 13, 1996. Mai fled and was arrested in Houston with the help of a tip. Authorities say the tip came from the man Mai is now accused of plotting to have killed.

Arrested for the federal violation of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire were Mai’s girlfriend, Vicky Pham, 24, of Fountain Valley; Huy Ngoc Ha, 20, of Santa Ana; and investigator Daniel Bruce Watkins, who has worked on a number of high-profile murder defenses in Orange County.

Arrested Monday for unlawful possession and transfer of firearms were Dempsey Blue Richmond, 25, of Covina; Ivan Keith Alcala, 29, of Diamond Bar; and Eric Moto, 19, of Azusa. Richmond and Moto were employees of Verde Firearms in Azusa, officials said.

All the suspects made an initial appearance in federal court in Santa Ana on Tuesday. The suspects were to be transferred to the Federal Detention Center in Los Angeles. Moto was released after posting $20,000 bail.

The weapons involved in the case, officials said, were equal to the firepower used in the North Hollywood bank shootout in February 1997.

The investigation began last year as a probe by Santa Ana police officers and the ATF into illegal guns trading. The FBI became involved in January, when Mai solicited the undercover officer, who was not named, to kill a witness in his murder case. Pay phones at the jail were tapped by court order, and an elaborate paging and three-way-calling setup were allegedly used by Mai and his alleged accomplices in the gun scheme.

Watkins, of Fullerton, a seasoned private investigator working on Mai’s defense, allegedly gave the undercover officer the business address of Alex Nguyen, a key witness in Mai’s trial. The undercover officer had by then agreed to kill Nguyen.

Mai’s defense attorney in the Burt murder case, Dennis O’Connell, said Tuesday he could not believe that Watkins, who he said was a decorated Vietnam veteran, would be involved.

“As far as Dan Watkins is concerned, I’ve known him 15 years and I’ve never had any problems with him on a case,” O’Connell said. “I just cannot believe that Dan Watkins would be a knowing participant in any of this. It just goes against all that I know of him.”

After the undercover officer agreed to kill witness Nguyen, the officer provided a photo of Nguyen in which he appeared to have been fatally shot in the head.

The FBI’s Timothy P. McNalley, assistant director in charge of the Los Angeles bureau, said that Mai not only plotted to eliminate a witness in his own trial but those in others.

“This investigation also uncovered other plots directed by Mai to interfere with the judicial process regarding other criminal defendants pending trial in the Orange County area. This case also demonstrated that there was an effort undertaken to solidify and bring together different Asian criminal enterprise groups in the area under the direction of Mai,” McNalley said.

Besides the potential danger to witnesses in other trials, there was the safety of the public because of alleged gun trafficking, authorities said.

Undercover agents bought numerous weapons from Mai and his network, including automatics with silencers, a machine gun and other high-powered assault-type guns, officials said. Authorities said seizures Monday at various locations yielded counterfeit checks, an automatic weapon, a semiautomatic weapon, 20 rifles, seven shotguns, 25 handguns, a 100-round magazine and other gun parts.

“ATF’s concern in this investigation was the destructive power of the firearms involved,” Curd explained. “These are machine guns that fire at a rate of some 1,100 rounds per minute, and they also involve silencers and ammunition and magazines that were illegal to possess.”

The investigation is still underway, and other charges in the case may be filed.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates did not return a phone call for comment on how such an alleged gun-trafficking business could be run by an inmate.

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Times librarian Lois Hooker contributed to this report.