A 24-year-old woman was convicted Thursday of murder in the death of a woman who was dragged for several blocks while hanging onto a car the defendant was driving following a robbery.
Lynn Ai Quach was convicted in an Orange County courtroom of first-degree murder with a special circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery and jurors also found true sentencing enhancements for street gang activity and a gang member’s vicarious discharge of a firearm. Jurors acquitted Quach of attempted murder.
Quach,who was scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 24, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Co-defendant Christopher Dai-Ichi Yu was convicted in June 2011 of first- degree murder, attempted murder and street terrorism. A sentencing enhancement for discharging a firearm was found true.
Yu’s sentence was reduced to 74 years to life in prison after an appeal that upheld his convictions, according to court records.
Quach and Yu are convicted of killing 38-year-old Tina Tuyet Huynh on March 27, 2010, in Westminster.
The two met with Huynh under the pretense of selling her about 2,000 pills of Ecstasy, but really intended to rob her, according to trial testimony in Yu’s case.
Quach picked up Yu in her car and they drove to Russell Paris Park in Westminster, where they met Huynh. The victim’s boyfriend, Truong Pham, waited for her in his car.
Huynh told the pair she had $4,800 for the pills and demanded to see the Ecstasy, but Yu did not have any pills so he grabbed the cash and as Quach punched the accelerator the victim hung onto the car, according to Deputy District Attorney Dan Feldman.
It appeared the 4-foot-6, 83-pound victim’s arm got tangled up in her purse, which apparently got stuck to a side-view mirror of the car as it sped away, according to Feldman.
“It was a combination of death grip, tangled and speed,” Feldman said.
Pham gave chase in his car as Quach drove up and down a few streets with the victim hanging on to a door, according to trial testimony. Yu ultimately grabbed the purse and tossed it into the back of Quach’s car and then he fired a gun to get the victim to let go, which she did, according to trial testimony in Yu’s case.
Feldman’s theory was Yu was shooting over the victim at Pham during the chase, the prosecutor said.
Pham rammed his car into the defendants’ vehicle, prompting Yu to fire his gun four more times at Pham, according to Yu’s trial testimony. Pham managed to dial 911 during the conflict and an Orange County sheriff’s deputy in the area saw the chase and made Quach and Pham pull over.
Pham made a U-turn to go back to Huynh, who was dragged for nearly a mile, according to Feldman.
— City News Service