Prosecutors Sum Up Asian Gang Murder Case

After two months of a trial in which the defendants are suspected of arranging the killing of the father of the key witness, prosecutors called on jurors Thursday to convict seven alleged members of the notorious Asian Boyz street gang of multiple murder.

Summing up a case based largely on the testimony of two gang members, the prosecution asked jurors to believe the gang members’ accounts documenting seven slayings and 15 attempted slayings.

“You may not want any of these people in your home,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Baird. “But that’s not the issue here. The issue is whether or not you believe these witnesses, based on all the evidence presented in this case.”

The witnesses recounted a deadly ambush on a Latino gang, an armed mission to seek out and shoot other gang members and running car-to-car gun battles.

Baird and Deputy Dist. Atty. Hoon Chun asked jurors to believe the word of the two admitted violent thugs and rely on exhibits featuring the murder weapons, maps of shell casings, photos of the defendants’ tattoos, and the testimony of other witnesses for corroboration.

Defense attorneys have hammered at the former gang members--who were given immunity from prosecution in exchange for their testimony--and picked at inconsistencies, saying that the state’s key witnesses are opportunistic liars who are blaming the innocent to save themselves.

The defendants, Son Thanh Bui, 22; David Evangalista, 23; Bunthoeun Roeung, 22; Sothi Menh, 23; Roatha Buth, 26; Kimorn Nuth, 19; and Ky Tony Ngo, 22, have denied being members of the gang. Some were college students at the time the crimes were committed, including Evangalista, who was an A student.

Five of the seven could face the death penalty if convicted.