Death Penalty Urged in Killings

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury returned a death verdict Thursday against a member of an Asian street gang that is accused of a 1995 murder rampage stretching from Washington state to Southern California.

Cambodian immigrant Samreth Sam Pan, 25, a member of the Tiny Rascals gang, was convicted of three killings in Los Angeles County and Sacramento that prosecutors said were part of the rampage. Meanwhile, a second jury began deliberations Thursday on the fate of his co-defendant, Run Peter Chhoun.

Pan and Chhoun, 29, the suspected leader of the gang, were convicted last week of killing Nghiep Thich Le, 48, and his father, Hung Dieu Le, 73, of Sacramento during a home invasion, and Miguel Vargas Avina, 20, of Pomona.

Deputy Dist. Atty. John Monaghan said Avina was shot as he was putting a .22-caliber rifle in his truck to go rabbit hunting. He said Pan and Chhoun mistakenly thought he was a rival gang member.

The two also were convicted of burglarizing and robbing the Le home and attempting to murder Nghiep Le’s wife, Quyen Luu, 49, who was shot in the thigh.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry scheduled sentencing for March 13.

Monaghan said the Sacramento and Pomona cases were tried in Los Angeles in the same courtroom under a law that permits combining cases that have factors in common. In these cases, he said, the defendants are in the same gang, used the same weapons and committed the offenses within a short period of time. The law was designed primarily to deal with serial murder cases.

In addition to those convictions, Chhoun has been sentenced in San Bernardino County to death for the August 1995 home invasion murders of a family of five.

He and Pan also have been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the drive-by shooting of a rival gang member, Bunlort Bun, 20, in Muscoy in San Bernardino County the same month.

Chhoun also has been charged with the murders of a Spokane, Wash., couple in July 1995.