Driver found guilty in dragging death

A Fountain Valley man faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being convicted in a woman’s death.

Christopher Dai-Ichi Yu, 19, was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of committing it during a robbery, attempted murder and street terrorism. He received sentencing enhancements for committing the murder to benefit a street gang and discharging a firearm.

Yu is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 5, said spokeswoman Farrah Emami of the Orange County district attorney’s office. His co-defendant, Lynn Ai Quach, is scheduled for trial Oct. 31.

According to prosecutors, Yu and Quach arranged to meet Tuyet Thi Huynh, 38, in Westminster for a drug deal March 27, 2010. The defendants, however, planned to rob her.

The three met about 11:30 p.m. in a parking lot at Russell C. Paris Park, while Huynh’s boyfriend, Truong Pham, waited nearby in his car.

Yu grabbed the victim’s cash, but her purse became entangled in the Honda Civic the defendants were in, and she was dragged for almost a mile as Quach sped away, prosecutors said. Yu shot at Pham, who gave chase in his own car. Pham was not hit.

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy stopped Yu and Quach, and Huynh was pronounced dead at a hospital soon after.