Introduction

1. Introduction So the case I chose to do involves a man by the name of Charles Ng. I chose this case because after researching the case, it seemed pretty interesting what he did as a U.S Marine and how he became one, it even surpassed the OJ Simpson case in costs totaling more than 20 million dollars. His criminal record is pretty terrible . Charles and his accomplice Leonard Lake were convicted of kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and murder. Charles and Leonard used Leonard’s ranch in Calaveras County, California where the two of them would film themselves raping and torturing their victims and later kill them. This behavior continued for about two years with about 11 to 25 victims between the two of them, no one had heard about them until 1985 when Leonard was pulled over by an officer, the officer had done a check on the car Leonard was currently driving but the registration number hadn’t matched and came back as it being owned by a Lonnie Bond. After Leonard had shown the officer his Id the officer knew it was stolen and ran the serial number from a gun he found and arrested Leonard. While Leonard was in custody he asked for a pen , a piece of paper, and a glass of water and committed suicide using two cyanide pills hidden in his collar.

3. Charles Chi-Tat Ng Background • Born in Hong Kong on December 24 1960, his mother was never mentioned but his father was a wealthy executive that abused him for all of his childhood. Charles was expelled from many schools during his teen years and was described as a loner. He committed his first petty crime at age 15 stealing from a store. After he got arrested he was sent to a boarding school by his father but was soon expelled for stealing from other students. Only after a few years immigrating to the States Charles joined the US Marine Corps from the help of an inside man that provided him with fake citizenship papers . But just like every other place Charles been it ends with disaster, after being there for less than a year he was dishonorably discharged for theft of heavy weaponry and machine guns and also charged with attempted desertion and was sentenced 14 years in a miltary prison. He only served two years before his sentence was commuted.

4. Background of Crime Committed - The Crime that was committed by Charles Ng started in 1983 when he met up with Leonard Lake in Calaveras County, California where the two started their treacherous murders. One of the first victims of the two were Leonard’s neighbors Brenda and Lonnie O’Connor and their son. Before hand Brenda was suspicious about Lake because she claimed she had seen him burying a body in the woods. For this reason the family had asked for their friend Robin Stapley to stay with them but it didn’t matter because Lake and Charles didn’t care how many there were he still had his way with them. Many women, men, and children/babies were victims. They kept tapes of the rape and torture they inflicted on their victims for later enjoyment. After they had their fun they would kill them and incinerate their remains or bury them deep in the woods. Charles Ng was apprehended in June 6,1985 where the beginning of the most costly case began.

5. Prosecution Arguments - The prosecutor SharleneHonnaka described the evidence as six tons which interpreted that she had a strong case against Ng. The evidence that was used in the court room in October 1998 was multiple videos, pictures and letters between Ng and Lake. The video clearly shows Ng and Lake both taking part in the torture and rape where they would make threats of death if they didn’t cooperate with them. The strength of the evidence is amazing because they were both seen in the videos and they have their hand written letters stating the crimes they had committed. Also the pictures of them and their victims together is also a huge score because if it weren’t for their stupidity of having the video tapes and pictures and bad history he might have gotten away with it or at least had a reduced sentence.

6. Defense - Charles Ng had many different attorneys as a result he started delaying his case by using them as an excuse, they would claim they didn’t have enough time get a proper case together. When it finally started Ng’s attorneys argued that Ng was an unwilling accomplice and only contributed to the sexual offences but had nothing to do with any of the murders. Charles defense fell apart when he decided to take the stand during the trial where the prosecutor had brought more evidence that had shown Ng’s true identity. The evidence presented was a picture of Ng with a devious cartoon he drew with the motto “No Kill, No Thrill , No Gun , No Fun”.

7. Evidence Summary • Videos of Charles Ng raping, torturing, and taunting women with knives. This is the most significant pieces of evidence because it shows Ng in the act of his disgusting actions. • Another piece of evidence that convicted Ng was the pistol he had used to kill his victims and also the pistol that he used right before he was arrested for shoplifting. This was also very important because it had put Ng at the murders as well which was the most important thing.

8. Jury Decision and Sentence Eight months later from the beginning of case the jury had made their decision, the decision was decided within hours after all the evidence was presented. Charles Chi-Tat Ng was sentenced to death on 11 counts of murder which of 6 men, 3 women, and 2 babies.