Murder trial ends in mistrial

Jurors in the case of a teenage gang member are deadlocked.

By JOUNICE L. NEALY

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 24, 2000

LARGO -- Unclear about how much doubt is reasonable doubt, jurors said Wednesday they were deadlocked after deliberating for almost nine hours over two days in the murder trial of teenage gang member Minh Trieu.

Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge W. Douglas Baird declared a mistrial and set a hearing for Tuesday to schedule another trial.

Trieu, 17, is accused of killing his former friend, 17-year-old Sinxay Phasavath, with a shotgun in October 1998. Trieu also is charged with five counts of attempted second-degree murder, accused of firing a shotgun at five other teenagers who accompanied Phasavath to Trieu's home.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys declined to comment about the case other than to say they were disappointed but respectful of the jury's decision.

The 12-member jury deliberated nearly six hours Tuesday before telling Baird that they could not reach a verdict Tuesday night. He told them to come back the next day and try again.

At 9 a.m. Wednesday, jurors resumed their discussions. They later told the judge that there was "substantial conflict" and they were deadlocked. He again asked them to continue.

By 11:30 a.m., the jury told the judge a third time that they couldn't reach a verdict.

According to the note, jurors wanted to know how much doubt is reasonable doubt and more about the "castle doctrine," which means people do not have to retreat from their homes to avoid bodily harm or death.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed that the jurors already had that information with them and would have to rely on their own judgment.

"They may think there's something that they haven't gotten," said Baird, who declared the mistrial around noon.

None of the jurors contacted wanted to comment.

Trieu's father, Dean Johnson Trieu, said he would wait until everything was over to comment.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Trieu fatally shot an unarmed Phasavath who came to Trieu's duplex in the High Point area near Largo to "squash any problems."

Trieu was a "little guy who wants to be a tough guy with a big gun," Assistant State Attorney Joe Bulone argued during his closing statement to the jury Tuesday.

Phasavath knocked on Trieu's front door and raised his shirt to show that he was not armed, Bulone said.

Then 15 years old, Trieu fired a 12-guage shotgun at Phasavath, striking him in the abdomen, Bulone said. Trieu had two friends inside the duplex with him -- Phi Vo and Tom Nguyen, also known as 2-Wok. One had a bat and the other had a .22-caliber handgun.

Friends drove Phasavath, who was traveling with two carloads of nine other teens, to Northside Hospital, where he died.

After Phasavath was struck, prosecutors say that Trieu fired more rounds at the two cars that the teens came in and hit Rorn Sorn, Ra Sorn, Channary Rom, Steven Saongeratsamee and Phouvong Lamvichit.

Defense attorneys argued that Phasavath didn't go there just to talk and that Trieu, who had been threatened previously, fired in self-defense. After all, he came there with nine friends who had a bat, an ax and a pipe. They were in two cars.

"They went there with mayhem on their minds," Assistant Public Defender Nora McClure argued. They shouted, "We're going to kill you," McClure said. She questioned whether Phasavath was unarmed.

"Does that sound like a talk?" she told the jury during her closing argument Tuesday.

After the shooting, she said, the group with Phasavath smashed windows in the duplex. Nam Mai, the girlfriend of Trieu's father, then ran from the house with her then 3-year-old son and almost was attacked.

"They swarmed the house like ants," McClure said.

That shooting was the beginning of the latest heated exchanges between Southeast Asian gangs, police said.

Trieu was a member of True Asian Pride, which detectives have described as a smaller, aggressive gang that spun off from a gang known alternately as the Young Bloods, the Southern Bloods or the Asian Pride Gangsters. The rival gangs are made up largely of youths whose families are from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, police say.

Since the October 1998 shooting death of Phasavath, there have been several violent exchanges between the groups.

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