Parents of Slain CHP Officer Say Killer Is Unrepentant

A day after a shocking courtroom outburst by convicted cop killer Hung Thanh Mai, the parents of slain highway patrolman Don J. Burt on Thursday decried the defendant’s behavior as the desperate actions of an unrepentant man.

“He is Mr. Macho and he lost it yesterday,” said Don Burt Sr., the father of the California Highway Patrol officer Mai killed during a traffic stop in Fullerton four years ago.

Mai, 29, faces a possible death penalty for the crime, and on Wednesday he turned around from the defendant’s seat during his sentencing proceeding and told the Burt family: “I’d do it again.”

“He hurt us back on July 13, 1996,” Burt Sr., 56, said outside the Santa Ana courtroom where a jury is considering Mai’s fate. “He can’t hurt us more than that.”

On that day in 1996, Mai shot Burt in a well-lighted Fullerton parking lot after the 25-year-old officer pulled him over and allegedly found counterfeit traveler’s checks in the trunk of Mai’s car, authorities said.

On Thursday, Assistant Dist. Atty. Mike Jacobs continued to present forensic evidence in his case against Mai. Although Mai has admitted he killed Burt and was convicted in July, the jury will still hear the facts of the case before it decides whether Mai should be sentenced to death or life in prison.

Burt’s mother declined to comment about whether Mai, in light of his provocation on Wednesday, deserves to be sent to death row.

“It just shows that he has no remorse,” said Jeannie Burt, 54.

For the Burts, the final chapter of their ordeal has brought back frightful memories.

On Thursday, as Jacobs introduced autopsy pictures of some of the bullet wounds that riddled the patrolman’s body, his youngest sister Dani Stackhouse, 26, rushed out of the courtroom in tears. Burt Sr. clenched his wife’s hand as the two wept. Their eldest daughter, Keli Silva, 34, also held her mother’s hand.

“From a mother’s point of view, you never want to see your kids get hurt. I knew my son hurt,” Jeannie Burt later said.

Mai sat quietly through most of Thursday’s proceeding, shackled at the waist and feet. He shed the orange prison jumpsuit he wore to court Wednesday, opting for jeans and a tan shirt instead.

Burt Sr. suggested the change was an attempt by his attorneys to make him look less menacing after Mai’s conduct the day before, an assertion Mai’s attorney, George Peters, strongly denied.

“Suppose he wanted to meet with somebody and wanted to look nice,” Peters said, without saying who his client was scheduled to see.

Mai, who emigrated from Vietnam in 1975, told The Times in 1996 that his only relatives in Orange County were a grandmother and an aunt with whom he had no contact.

On Thursday, Burt Sr. expressed sympathy for Mai’s family.

“Their family suffered just like we did,” he said. “His family didn’t do anything to our son.”