2 Teens Called ‘Crafty’ Killers in Tay Slaying

SANTA ANA — The last two teen-agers facing charges in the 1992 New Year’s Eve slaying of honor student Stuart A. Tay are “crafty young men” trying to blame others for their involvement in the brutal murder, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

Abraham Acosta, 17, of Buena Park and Kirn Kim, 18, of Fullerton claim they were tricked into participating in the slaying and were unaware that a murder was planned. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Lewis Rosenblum told jurors that Acosta and Kim joined three other teen-agers in planning and carrying out the ambush.

“They knew all along they were going to kill him,” Rosenblum told the Orange County Superior Court jury. “Their whole goal was to kill Stuart Tay, and that’s what they did.”

The prosecution contends that Acosta was first to strike Tay, with a baseball bat, while Kim sat in a car nearby, acting as a look out. Tay, 17, of Orange, was murdered because the teen-agers feared he would double-cross them during a planned robbery of a computer-parts dealer, the prosecution said.

Defense attorneys are expected to present their closing arguments today, and the jury is expected to begin deliberating Wednesday.

Three other teen-agers have already been convicted of murdering Tay. A separate jury took just two hours in May to convict Robert Chan, 19, of Fullerton, of orchestrating the murder. Mun Bong Kang, 19, of Fullerton, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in May. Both face life in prison without parole when sentenced later this year.

Charles Choe, now 18 and also of Fullerton, was the only teen-ager prosecuted as a juvenile in Tay’s murder. Choe, who pleaded guilty in February, 1993, and agreed to testify against his former co-defendants, is expected to be released from the California Youth Authority when he turns 25.

Kim and Acosta are each charged with first-degree murder and the so-called special-circumstance allegation that the attackers were lying in wait. Acosta additionally was charged with committing the slaying for financial gain because Chan paid him $100.

The defendants attended Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.

Tay, a student at Foothill High School in Santa Ana, was lured to Acosta’s home in Buena Park under the guise of buying a handgun. He was beaten unconscious with baseball bats. Rubbing alcohol was poured down his throat, and his nose and mouth were then taped shut. He was buried in a shallow grave in Acosta’s back yard.

Deputy Public Defender Denise Gragg presented evidence during the trial that Acosta is a mentally disabled youth who was duped into believing he would strike Tay in the back of the neck once to scare him--but not hard enough to seriously hurt him--as part of a prank. Prosecutors and defense attorneys say Chan then stepped in and beat the helpless teen-ager unconscious.

Defense attorney Allan H. Stokke told jurors that Kim was not a witness to the attack and had no idea that a murder was even planned.

But Rosenblum told jurors that Acosta and Kim helped dig Tay’s grave the day before the slaying and were present during “planning” meetings.

“These are crafty young men,” Rosenblum told the jury.