Mass Murder Defendant May Represent Self

A former Marine charged with torturing and killing 12 people in Northern California may act as his own attorney at his trial, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Friday.

Judge John J. Ryan, reversing a decision he made less than a month ago, said he now believes that Charles Ng sincerely wants to represent himself and is not just trying to delay the trial, which could result in the death penalty.

Prosecutors allege that Ng, 37, and Leonard Lake committed serial murders on Lake’s property in Calaveras County in the Sierra foothills more than a decade ago. The bodies were found in a mass grave discovered in Wilseyville.

Lake later committed suicide, but Ng fled to Canada, where he was discovered after being caught shoplifting. He waged a six-year battle against extradition before he was returned to California in 1991. Three years later, his case was moved from Calaveras County to Orange County in an attempt to ensure the high-profile defendant received a fair trial.

The mother of one of the victims said she supported the judge’s decision to let Ng be his own counsel.

“I quite frankly think that Ng is biting off more than he can chew,” Lola Stapley of Garden Grove said. “What’s the expression? You give a man enough rope and he’ll hang himself.”

The judge said he was forced to follow the law.

“Although I’m reluctant to do it, Mr. Ng, I think it would be an error not to grant your request,” Ryan said.

Ng thus waives his right to appeal the outcome of the trial, set to begin Sept. 1, on the grounds of incompetent legal counsel.

Ryan asked Ng if he would be ready to go to trial then, to which Ng replied, “I’ll try my best.”

In another death penalty case, Daniel Carl Frederickson last year acted as his own lawyer to defend charges that he fatally shot a manager at a HomeBase store in Santa Ana on June 13, 1996. He was convicted but continued to represent himself in the penalty phase of the trial. He was sentenced to death.

Legal experts said that Ng’s chances for acquittal are slim.

“No non-attorney could represent himself adequately on a case of this nature, this complexity,” said Denise Gragg, a deputy public defender in Orange County.

In previous court hearings and on Friday, Ng has repeatedly stated that he dislikes the two public defenders assigned to his case and doesn’t trust them.

“This is something that is enduring,” Ng said in court.

Ng has said he wanted San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Michael Burt to represent him. But Burt has said he couldn’t be ready for the trial.

Ryan said Public Defenders William G. Kelley and James Merwin would be advisory counsel to help Ng if he asks for it. Kelley and Merwin also were asked to be standby counsel, which means that they must be prepared to try the case if Ng feels he cannot. The dual appointments upset the public defenders.

“What happens when those two roles clash?” said Kelley, an 18-year veteran of the Orange County public defender’s office, which has never accepted a role as advisory or standby counsel in a case.

Outside the courtroom, he said his office would file a motion in appellate court to oppose the judge’s ruling.