Jury Convicts Ng on 11 of 12 Murder Counts

A jury Wednesday convicted Charles Ng of 11 counts of murder for his role in a notorious Northern California killing spree 14 years ago, capping one of the longest and costliest criminal prosecutions in California history.

The jury will next decide whether the 38-year-old former Marine should be sentenced to death because of its finding of “special circumstances” due to the number of murders he committed. The penalty phase of the trial is scheduled to begin March 8.

A clerk read the verdicts to a packed Orange County courtroom after the nine-woman, three-man jury announced that it had deadlocked on one of the 12 counts that Ng faced. Ng sat silently scribbling notes during the hearing and displayed no emotion.

Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan declared a mistrial on the single count, which involved the killing of a San Francisco car dealer.

Family members of some victims, who have criticized the repeated delays in the case, expressed relief at the verdicts and said they will help them better cope with their losses.

“For many years, we didn’t believe in the justice system,” said Lola Stapley, 70, of Garden Grove, who attended the four-month trial regularly. Her son Scott Stapley, 26, was one of six men, three women and two children that Ng was convicted of killing.

“Today, we saw justice at work,” she added.

Shirley O’Connor, whose sister-in-law Brenda was killed by Ng, echoed similar sentiments in a telephone interview from her home in Coldwater, Michigan.

“We are just overjoyed,” said O’Connor, noting that her sister-in-law would have turned 34 the day of the verdict. “And it will continue until justice has been served. . . . It’s just been too long.”

Ng’s attorneys declined to comment on the jury’s action, and prosecutor Peter Smith said only: “I hope the verdict has brought some relief and closure to the families of the victims. It has been a very tragic situation for them.”

The convictions culminate an epic murder case that began in 1985 with the arrest of Ng and his alleged accomplice, Leonard Lake, at a Bay Area lumberyard on suspicion of shoplifting.

Authorities later discovered what they described as a virtual killing field on the pair’s secluded cabin property in Calaveras County, 150 miles east of San Francisco. The case, moved to Orange County because of pretrial publicity in Northern California, is expected to cost about $13 million.

At one point, police estimated that as many as 25 people were killed at the cabin property, located in the rural town of Wilseyville by the Sierra Nevada foothills. Authorities found more than 40 pounds of charred human remains buried around the property.

According to authorities, Ng and Lake kidnapped and killed their victims for financial gain. The pair would collect checks under their victims’ identities and sell their personal belongings. In the case of two female victims, O’Connor and Kathleen Allen, Ng and Lake used them as sex slaves before killing them, the prosecution contended during trial.

Lake committed suicide shortly after his arrest by swallowing cyanide pills sewn to his lapel.

In the Wilseyville cabin, authorities found a cinder block bunker where they believe the pair kept some of their captives. Inside, they discovered a small 3 1/2-by-6-foot cell with a one-way mirror that allowed someone outside to peer in.

The jury did not indicate why it couldn’t reach a verdict in the killing of Paul Cosner, a 39-year-old San Francisco car salesman and entrepreneur who disappeared in November 1984. Lake was arrested in 1985 while using Cosner’s car. The victim’s body has never been recovered.

According to the prosecution, Ng and Lake killed Cosner for his car, which he had advertised for sale in a local newspaper. A ballistic expert testified the shots had been fired from someone in the back seat toward the passenger side, which the prosecution theorized had to mean both Lake and Ng were in the car when Cosner was killed.

“We never got the body, and now we have no justice,” said Sharon Sellitto, Cosner’s sister.

Cosner’s mother, 74-year-old Virginia Nessley, traveled with Sellitto from her home in Columbus, Ohio to attend the trial. She sat through Wednesday’s proceedings weeping, her hand clutched into a fist against her lips. She said she had a premonition when the jury announced they were deadlocked on one count that it involved her son.

“I was resigned to the fact,” Nessley said.

After Lake’s arrest, Ng fled to Canada. He was arrested in July 1985 while attempting to steal a can of soda from a store in Calgary. He wounded a security guard and served 4 1/2 years in prison.

American authorities demanded Ng’s extradition, but Canada does not have a death penalty law and is reluctant to extradite defendants to countries that do. After a public uproar on both sides of the border, Canada finally granted the extradition in September 1991.

The case was transferred to Orange County in 1994 because of pretrial publicity in Northern California. The trial was then delayed for years, partly because of a slew of legal motions filed by Ng, whom one defense psychiatrist described during a pretrial hearing as intelligent but obsessive.

Ng has been represented by half a dozen court-appointed attorneys, most of whom he repeatedly tried to remove, including his current lawyers: Orange County deputy public defenders William Kelley and Larry Clapp.

The trial began dramatically in October when prosecutors played videotape footage showing two female victims--O’Connor and Allen--allegedly being forced into becoming sex slaves.

In one scene, Ng uses a knife to cut off the T-shirt and bra of O’Connor. “You can cry and stuff like the rest of them, but it won’t do you no good,” Ng says on the video. “We’re pretty cold-hearted.”

O’Connor, handcuffed and sitting on an easy chair, pleaded with Ng and Lake for the life of her 2-year-old son, Lonnie Bond Jr., who was nonetheless killed by the pair.

“You can’t take my baby away from me for sex,” she says.

The evidence portion of the trial ended with unexpected testimony from Ng himself. Ryan granted Ng’s last-ditch effort to testify on his behalf--even after closing arguments were underway.

Ng testified he was helping Lake in what he believed was a sadistic sexual game when they made the tape. He said he did not know Lake intended to kill anybody, although he admitted helping to bury two of the victims.

Ng’s attorneys attempted to shift the blame for the killings exclusively to Lake, saying their client was simply a pawn.

According to evidence and testimony introduced during the trial, Ng and Lake met in 1981 in Northern California. Ng, a British subject from Hong Kong, had escaped from a military jail in Hawaii after he was arrested for raiding a weapons depot. Lake was a Vietnam veteran, and the two men had common interests in weapons and survival tactics, prosecutors said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Ng Trial Saga

The multiple-murder case against Charles Ng is one of the costliest and longest trials in California history. The significant dates:

1985

June 2: Police arrest Leonard Lake, Ng’s friend and alleged partner in the murders. Lake kills himself while in police custody. Authorities later find a virtual killing field at his cabin property in Wilseyville in Calaveras County. At one point, they estimate as many as 25 missing people may be linked to Lake’s cabin.

June 6: Ng arrested in Calgary, Canada, while attempting to steal a can of soda. California authorities demand his extradition, but Canada, which has no death penalty, balks.

1991

Sept. 26: Canadian Supreme Court allows Ng’s extradition, and he is immediately transferred to Folsom State Prison, outside Sacramento.

Nov. 1: Ng files the first of many legal motions to remove his court-appointed attorneys.

1992

Jan. 10: Court enters not-guilty pleas on Ng’s behalf after he repeatedly asks for postponements.

Nov. 12: Prosecutors drop lesser charges against Ng, focus on 12 murder counts.

1994

April 8: Case assigned to Orange County Superior Court because of pretrial publicity in Northern California.

1995

March 29: Amid concerns about whether the county would be able to afford the trial after the 1994 bankruptcy, Board of Supervisors agrees to keep trial in Orange County; state and Calaveras County agree to foot the bill.

1997

Feb. 14: Court of Appeals removes original Orange County judge assigned to the case, Robert Fitzgerald, citing Fitzgerald’s bias against one of Ng’s defense attorneys.

March 28: New judge, John Ryan, sets tentative trial date of Feb. 2, 1998.

1998

Oct. 26: Ng’s trial begins.

1999

Jan. 27: Closing arguments halted when Ryan grants a last-ditch effort by Ng to testify on his own behalf.

Feb. 8: Jury gets the case.

Feb. 24: Ng convicted of 11 counts of first-degree murder; jury also finds special circumstances of multiple murder that make Ng eligible for death penalty. One count is dropped by the judge after jurors pronounce themselves deadlocked on it.

Sources: State attorney general’s office, Times reports

Researched by DANIEL YI / Los Angeles Times

THE VICTIMS

GUILTY

Here are descriptions of the 12 murder counts Charles Ng faced:

The Dubs family; Harvey, Deborah and their son, Sean.

* The family disappeared from their San Francisco home in July, 1984. Witnesses testified during trial that they saw two men fitting Ng and Lake’s description removing items from the Dubs’ house. Their bodies were never found.

*

GUILTY

Lonnie Bond, Sr., Brenda O’Connor and their son, Lonnie Bond, Jr.

* The family lived in a property near Lake’s cabin in Wilseyville. They disappeared in April, 1985.

*

GUILTY

Scott Stapley, 26

* The Guardian Angel from San Diego was backpacking in Northern California when he befriended Lonnie Bond, Sr. and O’Connor. His body was found buried along with Bond, Sr.’s. He had been shot to death.

*

JURY DEADLOCKED**

Paul Cosner, 39.

* The San Francisco car salesman and entrepreneur disappeared in Nov., 1984 after he put out a classified ad to sell his used car. The car was the same one Lake was driving on the evening he was arrested in 1985.

*

GUILTY

Kathleen Allen, 18.

* A pharmacy clerk, Allen disappeared in April, 1985. Witnesses told police they saw Allen getting into a car with a man whose description matched Lake.

*

GUILTY

Michael Carroll.

* Carroll was Allen’s boyfriend. His driver’s license and other personal belongings were found buried in plastic buckets in Lake’s cabin property.

*

GUILTY

Clifford Peranteau and Jeffrey D. Gerald.

* Both men were Ng’s co-workers at a San Francisco moving company and disappeared in 1985.

** Judge delcared mistrial

Source: Times reports

Researched by DANIEL YI/Los Angeles Times.