Defense Argues Ng Only Guilty of Lesser Crimes

Charles Ng is a burglar and may have participated in twisted sex games with captives, but he is not a murderer, the defendant’s lawyers said Wednesday.

Defense attorney William Kelley’s closing arguments marked the approaching end to the 14-year-old multiple murder case, one of the costliest and longest prosecutions in state history.

It would be a “quantum leap,” Kelley said, to conclude that Ng helped his survivalist friend Leonard Lake kill people just because Ng participated in some of Lake’s lesser crimes.

“I’d be a fool if I said he didn’t know some of the things that were going on,” Kelley told jurors.

Ng, 38, is accused of killing 12 people at Lake’s secluded Calaveras County cabin in the mid-1980s. According to authorities, Ng and Lake, a fugitive on weapons charges, robbed their victims before killing them, and made at least two of the women their sex slaves.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday.

Closing arguments in the 3-month-old trial were halted last week when Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan granted Ng’s last-ditch effort to testify.

Ng, who faces a possible death penalty, finished his testimony Tuesday. He admitted helping Lake burglarize a home and participating in Lake’s sadistic games with two women. However, he said, despite admitting he helped Lake bury two bodies, Ng maintained he wasn’t involved in the murders his friend committed.

Lake committed suicide in 1985 after he and Ng were caught shoplifting in a South San Francisco lumberyard.

Weaving a complex pattern of mostly circumstantial yet compelling evidence, prosecutors Wednesday portrayed Ng as an active participant in Lake’s scheme, replaying a videotape to bolster their case.

“This videotape hasn’t lost its memory, this videotape hasn’t changed its story,” Calaveras County Dist. Atty. Peter Smith said.

The trial was transferred to Orange County in 1994 because of pretrial publicity in Northern California.