Justices Void ’96 Murder Verdict

Blasting the interrogation tactics of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, a state appellate court has thrown out the 1996 conviction of a Taiwanese woman who allegedly murdered her husband’s mistress in Mission Viejo and smothered the illicit couple’s baby boy.

The case of Li-Yun “Lisa” Peng, 49, who also allegedly bit her victim, was an international sensation. It inspired a lurid movie with its revelations of wealth, marital betrayal and revenge. Chinese media covered every detail, and flocks of women with placards showed up at the courthouse to support the wronged wife.

Peng’s first trial, in 1995, ended in a deadlocked jury. But a second jury convicted Peng in April 1996. She was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A 4th District Court of Appeal ruling issued Thursday, however, attacked the tactics authorities used to obtain her conviction. In particular, the justices in Santa Ana criticized a nine-hour interrogation of Lisa Peng that was undertaken despite her repeated requests for an attorney. The investigators’ conduct, the justices said, was improper if not illegal.

“The overall state investigation was an example of repeated, intentional and inexcusable deprivation of an individual’s most basic constitutional protections from coercive tactics by the state,” the justices concluded.

Assistant Sheriff Tim Simon disputed the findings of the ruling Sunday.

“There’s a heck of a lot more to this,” said Simon, now in charge of the sheriff’s investigations unit. “There was never a nine-hour interview. The D.A. was there [during the interrogation] the whole time. . . . All these issues were brought out before, during the trial, and the trial court found the Sheriff’s Department did nothing wrong.”

A spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

But the appellate justices said detectives also exploited Peng’s husband, electronics tycoon Tseng “Jim” Peng, 56, who had earlier agreed to help law enforcement by hunting through his wife’s closet and her financial records for clues, the justices ruled.

When deputies believed that Lisa Peng was close to breaking during the January 1994 questioning, they sent Jim Peng into the room to ask his wife questions about her role in the slaying, the ruling said.

During this session, Lisa Peng tearfully admitted to her husband in Chinese that she had bitten Ranbing “Jennifer” Ji, 25, during a confrontation hours before her death. Detectives matched Lisa Peng’s DNA to that found in a bite wound on Ji’s arm. Jim Peng’s and his wife’s statements were translated and used as evidence during her two murder trials.

The state, the justices said, “exploited the initial nine-hour interrogation by bringing Jim to her for the specific purpose of translating booking questions and then surreptitiously taping their ensuing conversation.”

Detectives should not have allowed Jim Peng to assist police, the justices concluded, particularly since his wife was accused of killing his mistress of three years and Kevin, the 5-month-old boy he had with Ji. It was little wonder that Lisa Peng made incriminating statements during a conversation she thought was private, they wrote.

“Even an innocent person would make some kind of statement potentially incriminating after nine hours of threats, intimidation and bullying by law enforcement officers in the bowels of a county jail, and then being confronted with the questions of the victim’s paramour,” reads part of the 19-page ruling written by Presiding Justice David G. Sills.

Lisa Peng’s statements should not have been used during her trials, the justices said. And without those statements there was only circumstantial evidence to connect her to the August 1993 killings of Ji and the child in the Mission Viejo apartment, they said.

Jim and Lisa Peng split their time between Taiwan and a home in Rancho Santa Margarita. He headed Ranger Communications, based in San Diego. .

The husband met Ji, who was a restaurant hostess, during a 1990 electronics convention in China. Jim Peng eventually moved Ji, pregnant with his child, to California, where he set her up with a business and an apartment.

Lisa Peng knew of her husband’s affair and pleaded with him to end it, court records say. She even confronted Ji and cut holes in some of Ji’s designer clothes she found her Rancho Santa Margarita home.

On Aug. 18, 1993, Jim Peng returned from Hong Kong to find Ji’s body stabbed 18 times. Upstairs, their infant son was dead in his crib with a shirt stuffed into his mouth.

Michael Olson, an Irvine attorney defending Lisa Peng in a pending wrongful-death suit brought by Ji’s parents, applauded the ruling.

“They didn’t have any evidence,” Olson said. “ She asked for an attorney like six times, but they never gave her one.”

Lisa Peng was sued for $2 million in February 1996 by Ji’s parents, Zhuo Chuan Ji and Xiang Lan Liu, who live in China.

Thursday’s ruling also said detectives questioned Lisa Peng for more than four hours before advising her of her rights. After she was told she was under arrest, they met with Jim Peng and the couple’s two sons before sending Jim Peng in to talk with his wife.

Sheriff’s Lt. Ron White, the lead investigator in the Ji murder, could not be reached for comment.

Assistant Sheriff Simon said he plans to meet with the district attorney’s office this week to review the ruling and decide whether to appeal it to the California Supreme Court.

For now, Lisa Peng remains at a state prison in Chino. Her husband visits her during his trips to California, Olson said. They are still married.