People v. Ng
| Citation | 13 Cal.5th 448,513 P.3d 858,296 Cal.Rptr.3d 225 |
| Decision Date | 28 July 2022 |
| Docket Number | S080276 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Charles Chitat NG, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | California Supreme Court |
Eric S. Multhaup, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.
Kamala D. Harris and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Michael P. Farrell, Assistant Attorney General, Ward A. Campbell and Kenneth N. Sokoler, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
A jury convicted defendant, Charles Chitat Ng, of 11 counts of first degree murder against Sean Dubs, Deborah Dubs, Harvey Dubs, Clifford Peranteau, Jeffrey Gerald, Michael Carroll, Kathleen Allen, Lonnie Bond, Sr., Lonnie Bond, Jr., Robin Scott Stapley, and Brenda O'Connor. ( Pen. Code, § 187.)1 The jury found true the multiple-murder special circumstance. (§ 190.2, subd. (a)(3).) The jury returned a death verdict, and the trial court sentenced defendant to death in 1999. This appeal is automatic. (§ 1239, subd. (b).) We affirm the judgment in its entirety.
Between July 1984 and April 1985, 12 people went missing from Northern California. In July 1984, Harvey Dubs, his wife Deborah, and their 16-month-old son Sean disappeared from their San Francisco apartment. In November 1984, Paul Cosner disappeared from San Francisco; he tried to sell his car on his way home from work and was never seen again. In January 1985, Clifford Peranteau failed to show up for work in San Francisco and was never seen again. One month later, in February, Jeffrey Gerald disappeared from San Francisco after telling his roommate he was going to do a "side job" of helping someone move. In April 1985, Kathleen Allen disappeared from Milpitas after getting into a car with a stranger who was supposed to take her to see her boyfriend, Michael Carroll, in Lake Tahoe. Carroll also disappeared. Later that month, Lonnie Bond, Sr. (Bond), his fiancée Brenda O'Connor, and their infant son Lonnie Bond, Jr. (Lonnie), disappeared from the house they rented in Wilseyville. Their friend Scott Stapley, who often visited, also disappeared.2
These disappearances remained unsolved and seemingly unrelated until defendant, along with accomplice Leonard Lake, attempted to shoplift a vise from a lumber store in June 1985. While Lake spoke with police officers, defendant walked away from the scene. After officers searched his vehicle, Lake was arrested for possession of a firearm and subsequently committed suicide while in police custody. Officers then began searching for defendant. This search led officers to Lake's property in Wilseyville, where they uncovered evidence that connected defendant and Lake to the missing persons.
Shortly after Lake's arrest, defendant fled to Canada. He was arrested in a shoplifting incident a few weeks later. Defendant was ultimately extradited in 1991, at which time proceedings in the present case began. After resolving dozens of motions filed by the defense, a venue change, and a competency hearing, trial began in September 1998. The jury returned its verdicts on February 24, 1999. The penalty phase began on March 8, 1999; the jury returned a sentence of death on April 30, 1999.
On June 2, 1985, John Kallas visited South City Lumber Company in South San Francisco. Kallas had been a reserve police officer for the South San Francisco Police Department for 28 years. While at the lumber store, he saw an Asian man, later identified as defendant, carrying a large vise that was sold at the store. Suspicious that the man was shoplifting, Kallas continued observing defendant as he walked past him, continued to walk past the checkout counter, and exited the store with the merchandise. After a salesclerk confirmed that they had not sold that vise to defendant, Kallas and one of the clerks walked outside. Approximately 50 feet away, he observed the Asian man standing by the passenger door of a gold Honda. The man then started walking toward the street and away from the store. Kallas walked over to the vehicle and saw a box of wrenches in the back seat but did not see the vise. He saw the trunk was ajar, opened it, and saw the missing vise. Kallas called the police department. While he was on the phone, a bearded man, later identified as Lake, approached Kallas and started talking to him. He asked if he could pay for the vise; Kallas told him to speak to a clerk because he did not work there.
South San Francisco Police Officer Daniel Wright responded to the store. Wright ran the license plate for the vehicle and found that it was registered to Bond. Wright looked inside the open trunk and saw the vise, as well as a backpack. He opened the backpack and found a semiautomatic gun and a silencer. He ran the serial number for the gun through the computer system and found it was registered to R. Scott Stapley. He put the gun and silencer back in the backpack as Lake approached. Lake explained that he paid for the vise that his friend took. When Wright asked for Lake's name, Lake identified himself as R. Scott Stapley and provided Wright with a California driver's license bearing the name Robin Scott Stapley. Lake acknowledged that the vehicle belonged to Bond and said that Bond was "up north."
Wright arrested Lake for possession of a firearm that had a silencer. At the police station, Lake ingested cyanide and started convulsing. He was taken to the hospital where he died a few days later. Before convulsing, Lake wrote a note to "Lyn" that stated, in part, "I love you. I forgive you.
Freedom is better than all else. Tell Fern I'm sorry ... I'm sorry for all the trouble."
Police officers subsequently ran the vehicle identification number from the Honda and learned it was associated with a missing person, Paul Cosner.
After that, the South San Francisco Police Department turned the vehicle over to Inspector Irene Brunn of the San Francisco Police Department. She worked in the missing persons unit and had been investigating Cosner's disappearance. Inside the vehicle, Inspector Brunn found a Pacific Gas and Electric Company bill addressed to Lake's ex-wife Claralyn B. The envelope listed an address in Wilseyville, a town in Calaveras County, approximately three hours west of San Francisco.
Inspector Brunn contacted Claralyn on June 3 hoping she could help the police find defendant. Inspector Brunn and Claralyn met at a local café and made arrangements to meet at the Wilseyville property the following day. Claralyn gave Inspector Brunn a key and permission to search the premises. Inside the living room, Inspector Brunn discovered two pieces of equipment, including a VCR, that had been missing from the Dubs residence; unrelated to the Cosner case, Inspector Brunn had also been investigating the Dubs family disappearance. She called her office, provided them the serial number for the VCR, and confirmed it was from the Dubs residence.
At that point, Claralyn revoked her permission for the officers to search the property. The officers left the house, secured the premises, and obtained a search warrant.
An investigation of the Wilseyville property subsequently commenced. The investigation lasted five weeks and involved four law enforcement agencies. Investigators discovered thousands of bone and tooth fragments buried throughout the property. At least four dental specimens belonged to a child under the age of three years old. After reviewing all the found fragments, two forensic anthropologists concluded that they belonged to at least four adults, one child, and one infant. "Many hundreds" of the bone fragments showed various degrees of burning. Investigators also found a child's liver buried on the property.
In addition to the main house, there was also a bunker on the Wilseyville property. The bunker contained three rooms, two of which were behind a hidden doorway. One of the hidden rooms contained a bed, a desk, dressers, and some food. The second room was approximately seven by three feet and enclosed by a wooden door. Inside that room was a small bed with a foam pad on it, a plastic bucket, a roll of toilet paper, and a small lamp. The door into the small room could only be opened from the outside.
Police searched defendant's San Francisco apartment on June 7, five days after he walked away from the lumber store.
They found items belonging to Bond and Peranteau, as well as a map of San Francisco on which the Dubses’ street had been circled. The police also found two boxes of .22-caliber ammunition, a pamphlet about how to make a silencer for a .22-caliber gun, and photos of the bunker under construction.
Toward the end of June, a 14-year-old boy was playing in a wildlife park in Calgary, Canada with a friend. He came across a lean-to near some bushes and saw an Asian man lying down inside. The man said that he was tired and asked the boy to leave. The boy had seen a photograph of defendant in the news and thought that might have been the person he saw in the park. He told his parents about the man.
On July 6, defendant was arrested for shoplifting. Officers seized a pair of handcuffs and a key, a .22-caliber handgun that previously belonged to Lake, and ammunition.
The following day, a detective met with the young boy and his father at the wildlife park. He asked the boy to show him where the man had been camping. The detective found the lean-to and approximately 30 meters away found a cleared area with a sleeping bag. The sleeping bag lay on top of wood planks; underneath the planks was a dugout big enough to fit a person. The dugout contained a camera belonging to Stapley and a towel from Peranteau's apartment.
On July 8, back in Calaveras County, police officers were patrolling the area near the Wilseyville property. The officers observed some tufts of material and cloth scattered on the ground...
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