Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Accused killer can't represent himself
SANTA ANA, Calif., April 21 (UPI) A man charged in the sex-torture
killings of 12 people at a remote ranch in California's
Gold Country will not be allowed to represent himself when his trial
begins later this year.
Orange County Superior Court Judge John Ryan denied Charles Ng's
request today to represent himself after determining that the
defendant merely wanted to replace his attorneys.
Ng is scheduled to stand trial in Santa Ana on Sept. 1. The trial was
moved from northern California because of fear that he
wouldn't be able to get a fair trial due to heavy publicity about the
case.
Ng has been jailed since he was arrested in Canada in June 1985 where
he fled after his partner, Leonard Lake, implicated him in
the series of torture murders. Lake killed himself with a cyanide pill.
Ng was extradited to the United States in 1991 after fighting
extradition for about 5 1/2 years. He has filed dozens of motions since
that time that have delayed his trial, including challenges to judges
presiding over his case and the conditions of his prison
confinement.
He's accused of torturing and killing 13 people in the remote
Calaveras County hamlet of Wilseyville. Detectives found more than
40 pounds of charred human bones buried around the mountain hideaway,
as well as a videotape that allegedly shows Ng and Lake
tormenting several victims as they pleaded for mercy.
Ng is standing trial now for 12 of those killings. Prosecutors are
expected to decide whether to go forward with a second trial for
the 13th murder charge once the first trial is finished.
---------------------------------------------
The following appears courtesy of the 4/22/98 online edition of The
Los
Angeles Times newspaper:
Judge Says Ng Can't Be His Own Attorney
Courts: Request to oust defenders characterized as another ploy to delay
trial
in mass slayings.
By GEOFF BOUCHER, Times Staff Writer
An Orange County judge on Tuesday denied a request by Charles Ng,
suspected of a dozen slayings in Northern California, to act as his own
attorney.
Ng, 37, had told Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan that he didn't
trust
his appointed public defenders and wanted to represent himself against
charges
of serial killings in 1985. The 12 bodies were burned and buried in a
mass
grave in Calaveras County.
But Ryan said he thought Ng's request was a ruse, and that Ng was
angling
to have another public defender, Michael Burt of San Francisco,
appointed to
the case.
Ng has named Burt as his preferred attorney. But an attempt to
bring Burt
here failed last month when he couldn't promise to be ready for trial on
Sept.
1.
The case has wound its way through courtrooms for more than a
decade since
police linked Ng to the mass grave discovered in Wilseyville. The
Northern
California resident and former Marine fled to Canada and fought
extradition for
six years before he was brought to Calaveras County to stand trial. The
case
was moved to Orange County in 1994 to afford the high-profile defendant
a fair
trial.
Ng has pushed to have the Sept. 1 trial date postponed, and Ryan
this week
characterized the defendant's attempt to oust public defenders William
Kelley
and James Merwin as another delay tactic. The judge also ruled this week
that
Ng is mentally competent to stand trial.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
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