Killer of 2 Admits Her Guilt

An eight-year legal drama involving a Taiwanese woman accused of murdering her husband’s mistress and baby ended Friday with a plea bargain that calls for her to be released from jail and deported to her homeland.

Lisa Peng smiled and embraced her attorney after agreeing to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter. The plea came 11 days after a jury deadlocked in her third murder trial. The defendant, who enjoyed an affluent lifestyle in Taiwan as the wife of millionaire businessman Jim Peng, is eager to go home and spend time with her two sons, said defense attorney John Barnett.

The case, a tale of wealth, infidelity and revenge, attracted media from both sides of the Pacific and inspired a book and feature film in China.

In agreeing to the deal, prosecutors acknowledged their difficulty in winning a conviction against Peng for the 1993 slayings of Jennifer Ji, 25, and 5-month-old Kevin Ji in a Mission Viejo apartment. Peng’s husband was Kevin Ji’s father.

“As a trial lawyer, you have to step back and say, ‘The jurors have spoken,’ ” said Assistant Dist. Atty. Robert Molko. “It’s a reasonable compromise because of the probability we wouldn’t get 12 jurors to agree. And now she’s accepted responsibility for what she’s done.”

Superior Court Judge William R. Froeberg sentenced Peng to 11 years in prison. With credit for good behavior and the seven years she’s already spent behind bars, Peng became eligible for immediate parole. She is expected to be transferred to an Immigration and Naturalization Service facility in San Pedro and within a few weeks be escorted back to Taipei.

The case captivated people in Taiwan and China as well as immigrants in the United States, largely because of its soap-opera story line. It also struck a chord with Taiwanese women who have long complained about their husbands acquiring mistresses on business trips to China and the United States.

“This was like the O.J. Simpson case for the Chinese community,” said Charles Ding, a reporter for Sing Tao, one of several Chinese-language papers that covered the case. “Two people were killed, there were prominent people involved and now the result is almost the same. The suspect will go free.”

Peng’s decision to plead guilty marks the first time she has admitted culpability in the case, which included two hung juries and a conviction that was thrown out on appeal. When she was convicted at her second trial, Peng loudly proclaimed her innocence from the defense table.

She agreed to the plea bargain after weighing the risks of a fourth trial, Barnett said.

“Any time you go to trial, there’s a possibility of losing. She knows that, having lost and been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole,” he said. “She’s missed her sons terribly.”

An appeals court dismissed Peng’s conviction in 1999, criticizing sheriff’s deputies for a lengthy interrogation in which Peng asked for a lawyer and for recording a conversation between her and her husband during which she admitted she was at the murder scene.

Peng’s sympathizers sometimes showed up at hearings with placards to show their support. On Friday, one of those supporters brought yellow roses that she planned to deliver to Peng upon her release.

“Personally, I feel she’s one of the victims,” said Jolene Kuo, a Taiwanese immigrant living in Rowland Heights and a frequent jailhouse visitor to Peng. “I don’t believe she did it. But this is what she always wanted, to go home.”

Not everyone in court was there to support Peng. A juror who voted to convict her in the third trial sat in the back during Friday’s hearing. “Some people want to see it in black and white. I’m not happy,” the juror said. “I’d love to see 12 people agree and find her guilty.”

Molko said his case in the third trial was crippled by the appeals court’s prohibition on introducing Peng’s recorded statements to her husband as evidence. Peng told her husband that she was in the apartment when Ji died, but insisted the victim fell on the knife. She did not explain the 18 stab wounds.

Jurors who voted to acquit Peng in the last trial said they were troubled by a lack of evidence directly linking her to the crime. While it was clear that Peng had bitten the victim, Barnett argued that the bite could have happened days before the murder.

“With the state of the evidence, as hard personally as it may be, it’s the right thing,” Molko said of the plea bargain.

Ji’s sister and father, who traveled from China to attend all three trials, were back home Friday and not available for comment. Their $2-million wrongful death lawsuit against Peng is pending.