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SANTA ANA (CNS) - State Supreme Court justices Monday upheld the death sentence for a 47-year-old man convicted of the torture-murder of an 18-year- old woman in Irvine in 1995.
The state's highest court, however, reversed a gang enhancement for Ronald Tri Tran due to recent changes in the law.
Co-defendant Noel Jesse Plata, who was also sentenced to death for the murder of Linda Park, died Dec. 14, 2020, while in prison.
The two went to Park's home to steal cash and valuables and when they found her there they tied her up and slashed her neck to compel her to lead them to the loot, according to the court's ruling. Evidence at trial showed that the victim could have died from the slashing of the neck but it would have taken a long time to bleed out, according to the ruling.
Park was strangled with an electrical cord, according to evidence from the trial.
The victim's father had a habit of stuffing hundreds of dollars in a jacket in a master bedroom closet for the family to take petty cash from when necessary. That cash and the victim's mother's jewelry were taken.
Investigators found some of Tran's DNA on twine used to bind Park, according to the ruling.
However, prosecutors made their case based on statements Tran and Plata made to friends as well as to a confidential informant in the Santa Ana jail, who was working undercover for authorities in what is known as a Perkins operation.
The informant, Qui Ly, told investigators that while being held in Anaheim's jail in October and November in 1997 with Tran the defendant told him about the murder. Ly was facing a 31 years to life in prison burglary case because of prior strikes so he came forward to try to get a break from prosecutors.
Investigators then put Ly in a cell in Santa Ana jail with Tran and Plata and recorded their conversations.
Tran's girlfriend in 1995, Joann Nguyen, testified that she was friends with Park in high school, but after they attended Irvine Valley College they drifted apart.
"When Tran asked if Nguyen knew anyone with money or jewelry, Nguyen said that Linda (Park) had some., and she drove Tran by Linda's home after he said that he was going to rob Linda," according to the ruling. "Nguyen said that Linda had never told her where her father kept money or her mother kept jewelry."
Tran switched cars with Nguyen on Nov. 9, 1995, because he thought his car would look too suspicious in the Irvine neighborhood, the court ruled. Later that night when the two men returned she said they were "anxious and hyper" and Tran told her "they had robbed and killed Linda," according to the ruling.
Tran later told Nguyen that she was killed because he did not want her to identify him, according to the ruling
"After Linda's death, Tran received a new tattoo on the side of his neck, which he told Nguyen said, `Forgive me' in Korean," the ruling said.
The state's high court rejected arguments from the defense about juror misconduct, the decision to try both together, and admission of hearsay evidence through a gang expert. The jury foreman wrote a three-page document summarizing his views of the case, which included a news report he saw on the death penalty in the state during the trial. The judge did not find it amounted to juror misconduct.