November Execution Set for Ex-Monk in 1981 Murders

A Superior Court judge Thursday set a November execution date for double-murderer Jaturun Siripongs, a former Buddhist monk from Thailand convicted of killing a Garden Grove store owner and a clerk during a 1981 robbery.

The order by Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon comes less than a month after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case. Siripongs’ death sentence, challenged in the courts for 15 years, is now being fast-tracked: The execution is set for Nov. 17, the earliest possible day after the end of the required 30-day post-hearing wait period.

At the hearing, Siripongs’ attorney, Linda Schilling, argued that Siripongs cannot be executed because the state is required to offer him the option of dying by lethal gas or injection. An injunction by a federal judge bars executions by lethal gas, she said, precluding Siripongs from having the choice.

But Weatherspoon was not swayed and set the execution date without addressing the claim.

Schilling said outside court that she plans to exhaust all the options available. She said she will request a clemency hearing and may file a stay of execution in state or federal court.

The Thai government, responding to requests from Schilling and family members, has sent a letter to Gov. Pete Wilson requesting that the death penalty be commuted to a life sentence on humanitarian grounds. A Wilson representative said the governor has yet to receive the letter.

“There will be more coming,” Schilling said after the hearing in Santa Ana. “I’ve represented [Siripongs] for 10 years. I’m not about to see him go to the gallows without a fight.”

But Deputy Atty. Gen. Laura Halgren said Siripongs’ appeals have run their course. She added that any new claims, because they will be subject to a much higher standard, will not be seriously considered.

“There is no reason why the execution cannot proceed as ordered,” she said.

In 1983, a jury found Siripongs, 43, guilty of strangling store owner Packovan “Pat” Wattanaporn and stabbing clerk Quach Nguyen during a robbery at Pantai Market. Jewelry worth $25,000 was stolen from Wattanaporn and later traced by police to Siripongs.

A series of appeals followed, based on the claim that Siripongs had not been competently represented by his original attorney. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1994 ordered a new hearing, at which a federal judge dismissed the claim.

Schilling said the court system has failed her client.

“We’ve got a man innocent of killing anybody about to die,” she said.

Siripongs, who was not at the hearing, is resigned to the fact that he may die, she said. She described him as a “remarkable” and “delightful” man who endured a troubled childhood in Thailand, where he spent his formative years living on the dirt floor of his uncle’s brothel.

Like many Thai boys, she said Siripongs spent some time living a monastic existence as part of his Buddhist religious training.

“Everyone who has ever met him says he was not capable of doing this,” she said.

Siripongs admits taking part in the robbery, Schilling said, but he insists that an accomplice killed the women and that he did not know that the accomplice intended to do so. Schilling said Siripongs will not identify the accomplice because he fears retaliation against family members.

An “astounding” amount of evidence, she said, points to the possibility that Siripongs did not act alone. None of the 30 sets of fingerprints lifted from the scene matched Siripongs’, she said. Also, Schilling said, shoe prints in the store were consistent with those of another suspect, and hair samples taken from the scene were never tested. Additionally, she said blood stains in the front and rear seats of Siripongs’ car suggest that others were involved.

“Who sat in those seats? Who bled? There was obviously more than one person involved. It’s really implausible that the police didn’t look for someone else,” she said.

Halgren disagrees, pointing out that various courts over more than 10 years have upheld the initial verdict.

“The evidence presented to the Orange County jury convinced 12 people beyond a reasonable doubt that [Siripongs] strangled one victim and stabbed another repeatedly,” she said. “And every court since has affirmed that decision.”

Wattanaporn’s husband, Surachai Wattanaporn, eventually closed the business. The Brea resident believes Siripongs is guilty but said he does not want to attend any execution. A Buddhist, Wattanaporn feels no anger toward Siripongs. What happened, he said, was predestined.

“Whatever is going to happen is going to happen,” he said earlier this week. “It’s karma.”