After a month-long trial, it took the jury less than one full day of deliberation to find Tanya Nelson, whose Vietnamese name is Phuong Thao Nguyen, guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and also found true three allegations of special circumstances, which makes Nelson now eligible for the death penalty.

The case has many bizarre plot twists, and yet they somehow stay credible. Key pieces of evidence have what the prosecutor argued in her closing statement “a ring of truth to it,” and the jury apparently agreed.

On the strength of forensics and the testimony of her accomplice Phillipe Zamora — another Viet with a non-Vietnamese name — Nelson was convicted in the killing of Ha Smith and her daughter Anita Vo. It probably didn’t help that Nelson’s diary for the day of the murder had the words “Grave Sin” written in English.

The jury also answered yes to three of the special circumstances questions: Lying in wait, murder during commission of robbery, and multiple murder.

The penalty phase – where the jury will decide whether to recommend the death penalty – begins next Tuesday. (If the jury does not recommend, the judge cannot impose the death penalty. If the jury does recommend, by law the judge can still give life without parole, but that is very rare.)

In the photo above is Ha Smith’s sister Thanh Huong Ngo, who traveled from Missouri to attend every court session since the case was first filed several years ago. As she answered questions from the Bolsavik (working in his day job), she showed pictures of her niece (left) and her sister.

She also showed pictures of her father, who went from a vibrant elderly gentleman to a weak old man needing help to walk, just from before to after the murder.

Zamora is the center of the case against Nelson. Defense attorney Kenneth Reed made much of the fact that Zamora is a liar, still lying on the witness stand (probably true), who testified in an attempt to get out of the death penalty.

The defense in the guilt phase – an extremely tough job for sure – consists of implying that Zamora killed both. Evidence was interpreted to say that Zamora killed both victims, and Nelson only profited from it. A crime, yes, but murder, no. Following closing argument, Reed argued to the Bolsavik, “He pleaded guilty to two counts of murder!” – which is something more like a spin because there are a million ways to be guilty of murder without being the person killing them.

The evidence presented at trial seems to tell this story:

Nelson (pictured below) used own a business in Orange County. She had an affair with her husband’s brother Loi Nguyen, and on Smith’s advice as her fortune teller, Nelson moved with her children and Nguyen to North Carolina where she opened a similar business.

Things, however, did not go well. The business failed, and the affair went sour.

Nelson went back to Smith and asked for a spell (bùa) that would revive Nguyen’s love for her.

But Smith told Nelson it could not be done. That Nelson and Nguyen were not destined to be together and no amount of spell could help them.

(Outside of court, Smith’s sister told Nguoi Viet’s reporter that all of Smith’s spells were made by her ex-husband living in Vietnam and the sister knew of the message, from the ex-husband, saying that Nelson’s case couldn’t be helped.)

Desperate, Nelson hatched a plan to rob Smith – known for wearing expensive jewelry.

She got hold of Zamora, whose wife is a friend of Nelson’s. Nelson manipulated Zamora into doing her bidding.

Now, how Nelson controlled Zamora was a little strange and a point of contention from the defense.

The prosecution argued that Zamora was a closet gay man, and Nelson had promised that if Zamora did what she told, she would introduce him to other gay men. She did introduce Zamora to a gay friend at a dinner in Little Saigon, but the two did not hook up. Nelson still managed, according to the prosecution’s theory, to keep controlling Zamora and getting him to kill Smith.

That was part of the reasonable doubt that the defense tried to plant. How could a 50-year-old adult man be “turned gay” (according to Zamora’s testimony) by Nelson? How could a grown man, getting nothing in return, be so manipulated as to kill another human being?

However she did it, Nelson got Zamora to come with her to Orange County. He tried to get a session with Smith, but couldn’t. They went to dinner with Nelson’s gay friend, and nothing happened.

The next day, Nelson and Zamora both went to see Smith. They went in and spoke. At some point, Vo came home. Then the dog needed to be let out.

Smith and Zamora then went out to walk the dog. While the two were outside, they heard Vo scream and both ran in, when they saw Nelson repeatedly stabbing Vo with a kitchen knife.

Smith screamed and ran to help, but Zamora grabbed her, and smashed her with a champagne bottle. As Zamora stated, Nelson then yelled to Zamora to “Kill her! Don’t let her scream!”

Zamora took another kitchen knife and stabbed Smith. Smith, however, also got another knife and stabbed him back until Zamora stabbed Smith to death.

The champagne bottle was subject to some exchanges between Zamora and the defense. Zamora, who had admitted to a lot of killing, insisted that he only hit Smith once on the shoulder with the champagne bottle. The medical examiner, however, concluded that Smith had been hit multiple times with a blunt object, including several hits to the head and side of the ear.

The defense tried to exploit this point to show how much of a liar Zamora is. On this particular piece of evidence, however, things backfired. On the stand, after a several questions by the defense, Zamora shrugged and said, “If I didn’t hit her, she (Nelson) probably did it.” On closing, the prosecutor seized on this point and pointed out that the ripped up ear probably had earrings on — earrings that Nelson unsuccessfully tried to sell to a jeweler in the Asian Village Mall (Phước Lộc Thọ).

Nelson went on wild shopping sprees in California and in the South, buying things with the victims’ credit and ATM cards, making numerous phone calls to the customer service lines at credit card and cell phone companies to switch the cardholders’ address to her own rented mail box.

She bought airline tickets for her entire family to travel to Orange County, using Smith’s name for herself and Vo’s name for her daughter. What she did not know was that Westminster PD already found her and one of them was on the plane.

Once here, Nelson went shopping at South Coast Plaza, tailed by Westminster PD. When she went back to the motel where she had registered under her own name, cops came in and arrested her. Among the loot found in the motel room was a set of brand-name luxury luggage that had belonged to the dead victims.

The case was originally assigned to DDA Kevin Haskins. During the hearing on a motion in limine, it was revealed that Mr. Haskins was opposed to the death penalty, so the case was re-assigned to DDA Sonia Balleste.

Paul Duc Vu, 35, who lives in the apartment complex at 9601 Madison Circle near the corner of Bolsa and Bushard, barricaded himself in the apartment for 3 hours.

Police said they could clearly see Vu holding a large butcher-style knife. Using English and Vietnamese, they tried to convince him to come outside and to put the knife down.

That didn’t work.

After about three hours, they took him down with what they describe as “less-than-lethal” means.

Vu was taken to a hospital, treated, then held on a mandatory 72-hour mental evaluation.

And they would have continued their marijuana trafficking, if it weren’t for a single-vehicle crash that brought the ring, already under suspicion, to the fore.

At the center is Luyen V. “John” Doan, who’s been held in Spokane County Jail since February. Last week, Doan pleaded guilty to federal drug and investment charges and will give up more than 15 properties in Stevens, Spokane and Kootenai counties, including a home on Diamond Lake, a boat and a 2007 Mercedes-Benz.

He’s not the only one. Of the 30 people charged in the case, 18 have pleaded guilty and will cooperate in federal trials of the others. The Seattle Times reports:

“Federal prosecutors say Doan, 43, headed a drug operation that distributed thousands of pounds of marijuana throughout Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana.

“As his wealth accumulated, documents allege, Doan removed himself from the drug ring, employing dealers through businesses he owned or invested in, such as Lefty’s Steakhouse and Sports, the Teriyaki House, and Trick Shot Dixie Outlaw Saloon and BBQ [pictured].”

Doan himself is listed as an employee of Lefty’s Steakhouse and Sports.

These businesses employ other Viets to do the dirty work.

One of them, David P. Dang, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana. He used to work in the VIP room at Trick Shot Dixie’s, “which was often used for the consumption of controlled substances,” according to a plea agreement filed in court.

Another who pleaded was Jonathan Tri Duc Nguyen, a cousin of Doan’s. He pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to distribute 1,000 or more kilograms of marijuana and investment of illicit drug profits.

Four men thought to be involved in the drug ring are still at large, among them, Thuc C. Le, an investor in Lefty’s.

Doan, Nguyen and Le are thought to be the leaders. Tips from arrested drug dealers alerted DEA to the three in 2004. By spring 2008, federal agents were monitoring their phone calls.

Nguyen is thought to be the one who supplied weed to the people involved in the car crash.

In February 2007, two men were driving west on I-90 near the Spokane County line when they crashed. State troopers found $130,000 in cash in a paper bag near the site.

The men, Trong V. Nguyen and Somxay Phimmasanh, were arrested four months later in Montana after they sold marijuana to a federal agent.

The video, taken by a roommate of Ho’s inside their house, shows Ho saying over and over, “I’m just looking for my glasses … I’m looking for my glasses” as he is struck. Ho’s glasses had fallen off earlier in the encounter as an officer shoved him.

Click on the picture to view the enhanced video.

In it, the San Jose State University math major repeatedly apologizes as the officers strike him and asks officers not to stand on him.

A transcript of the enhanced version of the September incident, created by an audio and video-forensic analyst hired by the Mercury News, also indicates one of the officers said at one point, “I wanted to punch that (expletive) in the mouth.”

Click here to read the transcript, made by Gregg Stutchman of the Stutchman Forensic Laboratory.

None of the details of these verbal exchanges between the officers and Ho had been clear in the raw version of the video, which was first reported by the Mercury News in October.

Terry Bowman, a lawyer representing officer Kenneth Siegel – the one who whoopped Ho with his baton – said, “It’s not a defense to say ‘I wanted my glasses,’” Bowman said. “It’s not the officers’ duty or responsibility to assume the most innocent intent. That’s how officers get killed.”

Which has a point, if coupled with some modicum of evidence showing Ho resisted.

All the facts known so far, however, are consistent with what Ho has said since the beginning, and that is we have a situation somewhere in the gray area where Ho was not obeying orders, but then he wasn’t resisting at all.

The question is whether the beating administered by Siegel and the Taser by Steven Payne Jr. are justified when the evidence appears to be that Ho was not fighting back, not doing anything to the officers, and not posing any threat at all.

If it’s no excuse for Ho to just say he’s going for his glasses, it’s also no excuse for the police just say “he’s not turning over so I beat him senseless.”

The police responded Sept. 5 to a disturbance call that stemmed from a dispute that Ho was having with a roommate. At one point, Ho, an exchange student Vietnam, picked up a knife and said to the roommate, “I could kill you” for having slopped soap on Ho’s steak. As shown on a separate cell phone video, Ho then dropped the knife, and some roommates laughed, but one called the police.

Ho was not armed when Officers Siegel and Payne arrived. As he tried to follow Siegel into his bedroom, Ho was knocked to the ground in the hallway when he disobeyed the police order not to follow them, their reports show. Then, another roommate began taking a cell phone video of the incident, as Siegel repeatedly struck Ho with a baton, and Payne shocked him with a Taser gun.

The beating of Ho prompted widespread criticism. San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen calls for police to begin wearing bodycam. Vietnamese-American elected officials from the other end of the state, including Assemblyman Van Tran, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, and Garden Grove City Councilman Andrew Do, sent letters to the city of San Jose calling for a thorough investigation.

Linh Tu Nguyen, 33, was found dead in his home on Orion Road in San Leandro. Police responding to reports of a shooting found Nguyen “suffering from gunshot wounds.”

Paramedics pronounced Nguyen dead at the scene.

Two days later, police announced that a large amount of marijuana was recovered from the home. They do not think the shooting was random.

Orion Road (pictured below) is located in Marina Vista, a particularly nice part of town, with many spacious homes, most of which were newly built in the 1990s.

A neighbor describes the area to the Contra Costa Times here as “a very quiet neighborhood of mostly Asian-American families, where most parents leave for work in the mornings.”

Nguyen’s killing was the city’s second homicide this year.

Attorneys representing the two police officers beating and Taser-ing the San Jose Vietnamese student claim the student was at fault for resisting arrest, says the San Jose Mercury News here.

Terry Bowman, representing Kenneth Siegel, the officer who repeatedly beat Phuong Ho, told the paper that Ho “is responsible for his conduct, and he is responsible for not taking lawful directives from a police officer.”

The “lawful directives” apparently refers to Siegel telling Ho to stay still while Siegel went to look for Ho’s ID in his room. Ho, instead, followed the cop, and officer Steven Payne Jr. slammed Ho into a wall to put handcuffs on him.

According to Ho, his glasses fell off, so he went after the glasses, and that was when the police started beating him.

Bowman said of Ho’s conduct, “He is being combative and noncompliant, and he raises the stakes of the game.”

The beating was captured on a grainy cell phone video taken by Ho’s roommate.

At one point, handcuffs could be heard snapping (which the lawyers now dispute), and after that Siegel delivered yet another baton blow.

Both Bowman and Craig Brown, representing Payne, claimed the sound wasn’t that of handcuffs snapping.

“Whatever people think they are hearing, it is not the sound of handcuffs before the last baton strike,” Bowman said.

Now, on the one hand, pretty much the only reason cops would beat somebody is because the person resisted arrest.

On the other hand, on those occasions where cops beat people for no good reason, they always claim the person resisted arrest.

That’s not to say the claim is not valid, but it does mean that, until there’s a jury verdict, the claim is pretty much predictable and doesn’t really say anything….

The statement (click here to read the original PDF) was issued by three council members. In addition to Nguyen, councilmembers Sam Liccardo and Ash Kalra also signed. Kalra is a former public defender; Liccardo is a former D.A. and the alleged beating took place in his district.

The three wrote, “We are greatly disturbed by the video released by the San Jose Mercury News on the arrest of Phuong Ho, a Vietnamese exchange student at San Jose State University.” (Read more here)

They stated, “The behavior of the San Jose Police officers at the scene needs to be investigated thoroughly to ensure accountability for their actions.”

In an acknowledgement that the secrecy surrounding the investigation of the Daniel Pham shooting (read here) was – at the least – problematic, the statement said, “We also ask that if the District Attorney chooses to conduct a grand jury proceeding, that it be open to the public.”

In an interview conducted for Nguoi Viet Daily News, Nguyen told the Bolsavik that she believes San Jose police needs some department-wide reforms.

“Many advocacy groups have asked that officers carry devices that can record audio and video,” Nguyen said. “Many other cities already implemented this.”

“The San Jose Police Department needs to take on this reform,” Nguyen said. These evidence gathering devices would also ensure “officers are held accountable.”

San Jose State math major Phuong Ho (Vietnamese name: Hồ Quang Phương) said he was kidding around with a roommate when the latter, taking it seriously, called the police.

When police came, Ho was unarmed. As an officer attempted to handcuff him, his glasses fell off, and Ho reached down for them.

That was when the officer started beating him with a metal baton. A second officer Taser-ed him.

Another roommate videotaped the whole event, where the beating victim can be seen on the ground and can be heard crying and moaning. The roommate sold the video to Ho’s lawyer, who gave it to the San Jose Mercury News.

On the video, it appears that at one point, handcuffs were snapped on Ho, and after that the police delivered yet another baton blow.

(Click on photo to view video)

Police using a metal baton repeatedly beat a man even after he’s down, and the whole thing was captured on video by an amateur who just happened to be there.

That may sound like something out of L.A. in the last century, but it’s not. It’s San Jose 2009, and the beating victim is a 20-year-old Vietnamese exchange student, hit more than 10 times, including at least once on the head while another cop sic’ed his Taser gun on him, reports the San Jose Mercury News here.

The grainy cellphone video of the police attack on San Jose State math student Phuong Ho (Vietnamese: Hồ Quang Phương) was posted on the Mercury News web site. It shows Ho on the ground, crying and moaning, being hit repeatedly. Click on the picture above to view.

News of the beating came on the heels of a decision by the local grand jury, after a secret session with the D.A.’s office, not to prosecute any of the police involved in the fatal shooting of a mentally unstable Vietnamese man, Daniel Pham (read here).

An unavoidable question: Is this an isolated case, or is there a pattern of abuse or discrimination toward Vietnamese?

San Jose Police Assistant Chief Daniel Katz, after being shown the video by the newspaper, said the department takes the matter “very seriously.”

Police reports identify the officer who was beating Ho as officer Kenneth Siegel, and the one who Tasered him as officer Steven Payne, Jr.

The whole thing occured on September 3 when Ho’s roommate Jeremy Suftin splashed soap on Ho’s dinner steak. The two scuffled, and Ho picked up a steak knife, telling Suftin that in Vietnam, “I would kill you for this.”

Some roommates laughed at the comment, as shown on a videotape of that portion of the incident, but Suftin took it seriously, and called the police.

At least four officers responded. At that time, Ho was unarmed. According to police reports, Siegel asked Ho his name, but could not understand Ho’s accent. According to his interview with Nguoi Viet Daily News, Ho went to an elite school in Saigon for high achievers, Le Hong Phong High School.

So Siegel told Ho to stand still while he went into his room to check his wallet for ID. However, Ho proceeded to follow Siegel, and so Payne tried to handcuff him.

According to Payne’s report, he pushed Ho into a wall and then forced him to the hallway floor when Ho resisted being handcuffed.

Ho, however, said his glasses fell off and he was just going to pick them up when the police struck him.

It was then that another of Ho’s roommates, Dimitri Masouris, whipped out his cell phone and started videotaping.

That is the tape that the Mercury News posted. At one point, the handcuffs could be heard snapping, and another blow was delivered after that.

Police experts, many former chiefs and commanders at major departments, told the Mercury News that last hit, after handcuffs had been in place, is something of a no-no that probably qualifies as a felony.

The roommate sold the video to Ho’s lawyer, who provided it to the Mercury News.