4 Asian Boyz Gang Members Get Life Terms

Four members of the notorious Asian Boyz gang beat the death penalty Wednesday when prosecutors announced they will not retry the men but will accept a penalty of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The men were convicted in March for their roles in seven murders in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys in 1995. But jurors could not agree on the penalty.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp declared a mistrial on that issue last month, giving prosecutors the option of trying again.

“We don’t believe another jury would reach a unanimous decision,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Baird said. “Primarily, all of the jurors were swayed by the defendants’ age. They just felt the defendants were too young to sentence to death.”

Their ages ranged from 18 to 22 at the time of the crimes.

Jurors had split evenly in the case of two defendants, deadlocked in favor of life in prison for a third and deadlocked in favor of death for a fourth, the man police have identified as the gang’s leader.

Seven defense lawyers fiercely fought to save their clients’ lives. Attorney Jack Stone argued that defendant Roatha Buth suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from living through the bloody Pol Pot regime in Cambodia as a child in the 1970s.

After the mistrial, Stone said jurors told him they weren’t convinced that Buth didn’t know what he was doing. They split 6-6 on the death question for him.

Only Buth, 26, Bunthoeun Roeung, 22, Son Thanh Bui, 22, and Sothi Menh, 24, were eligible for death. They are scheduled to be sentenced next month.

The other defendants, David Evangalista, 24, Kimorn Nuth, 21, and Ky Tony Ngo, 23, have been sentenced to life in prison.