Accused Serial Killer Will Not Testify, Defense Says

The anticipated testimony of accused serial killer Charles Ng did not take place Tuesday as attorneys in the highly publicized trial announced that they will be wrapping up their case by next week.

Ng, 38, charged with killing 12 people in a cabin in Calaveras County 14 years ago, was expected to testify this week on his own behalf. But his lawyers decided against that Tuesday after a court ruling on the potential testimony.

On Tuesday morning, presiding Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan declined to grant a motion by the defense to limit the scope of questions by the prosecution during Ng’s cross-examination.

After the ruling, Ng’s attorneys conferred with him for nearly an hour before announcing that they would not be putting him on the stand.

William Kelley, the lead defense lawyer, declined to say whether the judge’s ruling influenced his team’s decision. He said he could not say what he discussed with Ng because conversations between client and attorneys are privileged.

“This has been a very complex case,” Kelley said.

Those in court who had hoped that Ng’s testimony would shed some light on the gruesome events at the cabin property were disappointed.

“You try not to set your sights too high,” said Sharon Sellitto, whose brother, Paul Cosner, was among Ng’s alleged victims.

Sellitto, who has been attending the trial since it began in October, said the proceedings have failed to uncover any new facts. Her brother’s body has not been found.

“I think it could have been interesting,” Lola Stapley of Garden Grove said of Ng’s possible testimony. Her son, Scott Stapley, 26, is among those Ng is charged with killing.

“Ng is such a loose cannon,” Stapley said outside the Santa Ana courtroom. “Kelley is playing smart. Ng has a super ego and a short fuse. You put those two together and it is a bomb waiting to go off.”

According to authorities, Ng and a friend, Leonard Lake, ran a complex scheme to murder people for financial gain. In the case of some of their female victims, the two former Marines used them as sex slaves before killing them, the prosecution contends.

At Lake’s cabin property, nestled against the Sierra Nevada foothills about 150 miles east of San Francisco, investigators found charred human remains and personal belongings of at least 19 missing people. There was also a makeshift bunker, where Lake and Ng allegedly kept some of their victims as prisoners, police testified.

Lake, 39, was arrested in 1985 but later killed himself during interrogation by San Francisco police. Ng fled to Canada, where he was caught during an attempted robbery. He was extradited to California in 1991. The case was transferred to Orange County because of pretrial publicity in Northern California. Ng faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Ng’s lawyers contend that Lake was the mastermind and the real killer.