Sick Juror Delays Ng Serial-Murder Trial

Only a day after the start of trial for serial-murder suspect Charles Ng, proceedings came to a halt Tuesday because of a sick juror.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan postponed proceedings until today, when the status of the juror, a man who may have caught the flu, will be better known. There are six alternate jurors.

The prosecution and defense presented opening statements Monday, and the state began introducing its first witnesses.

“We were very disappointed,” Sharon Sellitto, 49, said of Tuesday’s delay. Her brother Paul Cosner, who was 39 when he disappeared, is among the 12 people Ng is accused of killing.

Authorities say Ng and a partner, Leonard Lake, are responsible for a string of kidnappings and murders in a remote cabin in Northern California 14 years ago. The two men allegedly killed their victims for their belongings and to assume their identities in some cases. Among the victims are two babies and two women whom Ng and Lake allegedly used as sex slaves before killing them. Lake was arrested in 1985 on a shoplifting charge but committed suicide. Ng fled to Canada. Since being captured and returned to California in 1991, he has delayed his trial through a series of legal maneuvers.

The case was moved to Orange County in 1994 because of extensive pretrial publicity in Calaveras County, where the case originated.