Three years after a shooting in a church in Laguna Woods left one dead and five other injured, the alleged killer reported a defense not of the insanity season before the State Tribunal and the question of whether to ask for the death penalty seems to be in the minds of prosecutors before the Federal Court.
The attack apparently focused on hatred on May 15, 2022, on the Taiwanese presbyterian congregation on the road to El Toro, just outside the vast retirement community of the village of Laguna Woods, shocked the quiet community and led to a pair of criminal cases, in state and federal courts, against David Wenwei Chou, now 71.
The state of the state of the Orange County’s Superior Court took place much faster. Chou, a resident of Las Vegas, remained in OC prison, not in federal custody. Earlier this year, a judge of the Superior Court ruled that Chou could face a jury from Orange County on the murder of special circumstances and attempted murder of hatred crime improvements.
Currently, in this case, Chou is being evaluated by psychiatrists after pleading non -guilty due to madness, according to the judicial archives.
During a Friday, May 9, hearing, lawyers told a judge that a psychiatrist was still to meet Chou in prison. A defense of madness requires a determination that the accused did not understand the nature of his actions during the crimes and could not understand that they were wrong.
If successful, Chou would certainly be sent to a state hospital.
The prosecutors of the Orange County District Prosecutor Office have not declared if they would ask for the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. This decision is that of Dad Todd Spitzer, after examining the evidence, heard the defense and consults his main prosecutors and supervisors.
The federal affair against Chou – which accuses him of attacking the faithful “because of their real national Taiwanese origin or perceived and their presbyterian faith” – until recently, moved much more slowly. Chou has not yet had to appear before the Federal Court, according to the files.
Last month, federal public defenders informed the court that the federal prosecutors asked the Cabbage Defense Team to present the Capital Prosecutor’s Review Committee.
Federal prosecutors would not comment on the deposit or calendar of any presentation. But a “justice manual” published on the website of the US Ministry of Justice quotes a consultation with the American prosecutor or an assistant American prosecutor and the section of capital cases of the department as part of the examination process to request the death penalty.
President Donald Trump, shortly after having assumed his functions in January, published an executive decree restoring the federal death penalty. The American prosecutor general, Pam Bondi in early February published a memo note by raising a moratorium on the federal executions which had been adopted by his predecessor, Merrick Garland. Last month, Bondi, for the first time, ordered the prosecutors to ask for the death penalty – against Luigi Mangione, accused of having killed the CEO of Unitedhealthcare, Brian Thompson, in New York.
Questioned specifically if the presentation involving the case of cabbage is part of a greater effort to assess or reassess capital affairs, officials of the United States prosecutor’s office for the California central district refused to comment.
If he is sentenced in a court, it is not clear if a second trial would continue.
According to the testimony at the preliminary hearing of Chou in January in January before the State Superior Court, Chou attended a sermon invited by a former congregation who spent time in Taiwan, then joined the congregation in a lunch. The prosecutors allege that he used padlocks, super glue and nails to seal most of the doors of the church dining room, then opened fire on the older members of the church.
Shots hit Henry Ang. Legally blind, Ang was helped out of the church by a friend when they realized that the doors could not be opened, he said.
“I heard the sound of the pistol -” pop, pop, pop “,” said Ang in January. “When I lying down, I feel that the ball enter my foot. It was hot to me – and the pain. “
Dr. John Cheng, a resident of Laguna Niguel and a doctor of sports and family medicine with an Aliso Viejo practice, rushed to Chou, witnesses said.
Cheng was shot dead twice, suffering from deadly injuries.
The authorities attributed to him to have given other faithful time to master Chou, probably saving them their lives.
The law enforcement officials have described the shooting as politically motivated by the chase of cabbage with the Taiwanese community. They did not specify why Chou – who worked as a security guard in Las Vegas – targeted the Congregation of the County of Orange. But they hypothesized that it was the closest concentration to potential Taiwanese victims.
California Daily Newspapers
