Three Get Long Prison Sentences in Actor’s Death

After hearing a tearful niece say her Oscar-winning uncle saved her from “the killing fields of Cambodia,” a Superior Court judge Tuesday sentenced three admitted gang members to long prison terms for the robbery and murder of Haing Ngor two years ago in Chinatown.

“He was a provider for orphans, widows and handicapped victims of the Cambodian holocaust,” said Sophia Ngor, whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge rulers of her native land when she was 5.

“He was my father, my mother, my uncle and my best friend. I ask only that you allow his spirit to rest in peace by giving him justice now.”

Judge J.D. Smith answered by sentencing Jason Chan, 20, who had a record dating to when he was 13, to life without chance for parole; Tak Sun Tan, 21, to 56 years to life, which represents a sentence that is double the normal term because he had a prior robbery conviction; and Indra Lim, 21, to 26 years to life. They filed notice of plans to appeal their cases.

Noting that Tan had a criminal record and Chan got into trouble as a teenager, Smith said Ngor’s killing should serve notice that stiffer sentences should be imposed earlier in people’s criminal careers.

Each of the three defendants proclaimed their innocence Tuesday, saying that they did not kill Ngor and expressing sympathy for his family members.

“I know the law requires you to sentence me to a very harsh sentence,” Chan said. “Before you do, I want the families and world to know I had no part in this murder and robbery and I don’t know who did.”

Ngor, 55, a medical doctor, won an Oscar for best supporting actor for his role as a Cambodian photographer in the 1984 movie “The Killing Fields,” which chronicled the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s under Marxist dictator Pol Pot, who died earlier this year.

During their reign, about 2 million people were slaughtered.

Ngor fled to the United States in 1980 after his wife died during labor.

He was killed Feb. 25, 1996, beside his Mercedes-Benz in the carport of his home on Beaudry Avenue.