Rage in the Courtroom

Jurors and the family of slain CHP Officer Don J. Burt Jr. were confronted anew with the reservoir of rage in convicted cop killer Hung Thanh Mai when he toppled the defense table in a profanity-filled tirade Monday before being wrestled to the floor by seven deputies.

Mai, hands and arms shackled to his waist, tried to kick bailiffs as they dragged the orange-suited defendant from the Santa Ana courtroom in a chokehold.

A few minutes before, Mai hissed and swore at two witnesses, including Mark Baker, a former Anaheim neighbor who recounted how Mai had once threatened him.

“I should have killed [you]. . . . That is what I should have done,” Mai told a pale Baker, who faced him a few feet away. Last week, Mai taunted the dead trooper’s family, saying, “I’d do it again.”

Mai already has pleaded guilty to killing Don J. Burt Jr., and the trial--in its final phase in Orange County Superior Court--is to decide whether he should die for his crime or spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Monday was supposed to be the day the Burt family could bring the memory of their son and husband to life with their recollections of his love, his promise and his passion for his new job. Mai’s violent outburst briefly overshadowed the 25-year-old trooper--just as Mai did on that July 1996 day when he ended the rookie’s life in a Fullerton parking lot.

Mai was ejected during testimony of the second witness, Robert Bashand, a car dealer who recounted being kidnapped by Mai and an accomplice. Mai was allowed to return to the courtroom after a brief recess Monday, but only after promising Superior Court Judge Richard L. Weatherspoon that he would behave. Mai sat, his glance downcast, as he listened to the emotional testimony of Burt’s family.

Burt was killed July 13, 1996, during a routine traffic stop near a Coco’s restaurant in the 2400 block of Nutwood Avenue in Fullerton, after Burt found counterfeit travelers checks in the trunk of the white BMW that Mai was driving. Mai shot Burt seven times, delivering the final bullet execution-style to the head of the officer who lay dying on the pavement.

“I loved him,” said his father, Don Burt, a retired California Highway Patrol officer. “He was my best friend. We were getting to the point where we could be equal. Not father and son, but buddies--talking about work and kids.”

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The elder Burt wept during his poignant testimony, saying, “I never had any idea something like this would happen to him. I loved him so much.”

Jurors passed a tissue box around. Some blew their noses and dabbed their eyes during Burt’s testimony.

He relived some of his happiest memories with his son--the wedding of his son and Kristin, and the day he was told he was going to be a grandfather. But the proudest moment for both father and son was when the younger Burt joined the Highway Patrol.

“I pinned on his badge and I hugged him,” the father said, tearfully. “The proudest I’d ever seen him. The gleam he had in his eye--he was so proud.”

It was a quiet summer night the night his son died, Burt told the 12-member jury. He and his wife had just finished a steak-and-potato dinner and were getting ready to watch a movie. The telephone rang. It was their daughter-in-law’s father, also a CHP officer, saying there had been a shooting in the area that the younger Burt patrolled.

The elder Burt, a 30-year-veteran trooper, called the CHP dispatch center to learn more. A patrol car arrived to take the parents to the hospital.

“We drove [to the hospital] in dead silence,” Burt said. “I knew my son was dead and I couldn’t tell my wife. She was sitting there with hope and I couldn’t tell her.”

Jeannie Burt said she didn’t realize how serious her son’s injuries were until a few minutes after they arrived at the hospital.

“I thought he wasn’t hurt too bad . . . that everything was going to be all right,” Jeannie Burt told jurors. But then, “I saw Kristin’s brother and he just shook his head. And I knew my son was dead.”

Tears streamed down Jeannie Burt’s cheeks through most her testimony.

“He wasn’t perfect, but pretty close to it,” the mother said through her tears. “I’m grateful I had my son for the 25 years I had him. I wouldn’t trade that with anything. I’m just so sad that my daughter-in-law has lost the love of her life. That his son does not have a father. That I don’t have my son to hold and kiss anymore.”

Kristin Burt, widow of the slain officer, said she was seven months pregnant with their first child when her husband of nearly three years was killed. She took the stand Monday, faltering and fighting back tears as she described how the coroner told her that her husband was dead.

The coroner “held my hand and slipped [Don’s] wedding ring into my hand,” Kristin Burt said.

She described her husband as a considerate man who always remembered anniversaries and birthdays. He was fun and spontaneous.

“He loved to make me laugh,” she said. “He was very good to me. . . . He always [told] other people how proud he was that I was his wife.”

One of her fondest memories was the day that she told her husband she was pregnant. He had been in a workplace accident, and there were still stitches in his lips:

“He tried to smile, but he couldn’t because of the stitches,” she said. “Instead he was tearful, and he was very, very happy. . . . I lost my best friend, my lover, my partner, and the father of our son.”

After his son was killed, Burt said he found that returning to his own job as a patrol officer was difficult.

“After 30 years, I just told them I couldn’t go back,” he said.

Mai was convicted in July without a trial as part of a deal with federal prosecutors, who had charged him with weapons-dealing and plotting the death of one of the witnesses in the murder case. He pleaded guilty to the federal charges and is serving a 30-year sentence.

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After the hearing, the Burt family said they weren’t surprised by the defendant’s latest outburst in the courtroom.

“In a way it makes it easier for me,” Jeannie Burt said. “He is showing everyone what he is like.”

Burt added, “Obviously, there’s very little remorse.” He tried to recast the significance and purpose of Monday’s hearing.

“It’s not about Mai,” Burt said. “It’s about our son, that he was killed.”

Mai’s attorney, George Peters, couldn’t be reached later Monday to say whether he would seek a mistrial or otherwise question the jury’s ability to render a fair verdict after witnessing his client’s outbursts.

Jurors were scheduled to return to court Wednesday to hear any mitigating circumstances from the defense. But Mai’s attorneys said their client is not interested in presenting any defense.

Weatherspoon urged Mai to reconsider. “It’s important that you know by not presenting any kind of mitigating evidence that that might result in the death penalty.”