Fed jury convicts man in fatal heist

Jace Radke

Friday, Feb. 11, 2005 | 8:55 a.m.

After a federal trial that lasted more than three weeks a jury took less than an hour to convict a California man in the 1999 Las Vegas jewelry robbery that resulted in the murder of a security guard.

Jurors said the weight of the government's evidence and the number of witnesses produced who named Vu Nguyen as one of two men involved in the Sept. 16, 1999, robbery of Chong Hing Jewelers at Chinatown Plaza resulted in a guilty verdict.

Nguyen was found guilty of all three counts he was charged with: conspiracy and robbery affecting interstate commerce and use of gun in a violent crime resulting in death. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 6 by U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson.

Nguyen's attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Kennedy, said he was disappointed with the verdict but respected the jury's decision.

Government prosecutors presented the case that Nguyen was a member of an ever-changing gang of violent thieves responsible for strings of robberies and killings, under the direction of Anh The Duong, who is also charged in the Las Vegas robbery and is jailed and facing charges in Northern California.

Nguyen was found guilty of robbing the Chong Hing store off Spring Mountain Road west of Valley View Boulevard, taking more than $880,000 in high-end watches, including Patek Philippe watches ranging from $1,500 to as much as $65,000 apiece.

Prosecutors said Nguyen and Duong robbed the store wearing white clothes, gloves and black masks, and Duong used an assault rifle to fatally shoot Kenneth Bailey, a 37-year-old security guard, in the back as he washed the windows of the store.

The government relied on several members of Duong's gang who have pleaded guilty to crimes and are assisting the government in the prosecution of Nguyen and Duong. One of these witnesses was Bach Nguyen, no relation to Vu Nguyen, who testified that Vu Nguyen confessed the robbery to him.

Kennedy argued that Vu Nguyen was not one of the two robbers shown in an 85-second video of the Las Vegas robbery recorded by security cameras.

The two employees in the store at the time of the robbery, Loong Gee Tam and Darlene Kuo, both testified that one of the robbers was short and one was tall. Duong and Nguyen are both the same height, Kennedy said.

"We didn't give a lot of weight to one of the robbers being shorter than the other," one juror said after the trial.

Federal prosecutors said Tam and Kuo were scared and not in a position to determine the heights of the men during the robbery that took less than two minutes.