Trial begins in jewelry store holdup, death of guard

Jace Radke

Friday, Jan. 7, 2005 | 8:53 a.m.

Government prosecutors allege that Vu Nguyen was a member of an ever-changing gang of violent thieves responsible for strings of robberies and murders, including a 1999 jewelry store robbery in Las Vegas that resulted in the slaying of a security guard.

After a jury heard an hourlong opening argument from prosecutors outlining Nguyen's alleged involvement with the gang, Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Kennedy told jurors that it was physically impossible that Nguyen was at the Sept. 16, 1999, robbery of Chong Hing Jewelers at the Chinatown Plaza.

"What you will hear from the two witnesses who were inside the jewelry store is that one of the robbers was tall and that one was short," Kennedy said using different size Starbucks coffee cups to illustrate his point.

Kennedy went on to point out that Nguyen is the same height as the other man that prosecutors have charged in the robbery, Anh The Duong.

"For the government to be right, the witnesses have to be dead wrong," Kennedy said.

Nguyen is charged with conspiracy and robbery affecting interstate commerce, and use of gun in a violent crime resulting in death.

Nguyen and Duong are alleged to have robbed the Chong Hing store off Spring Mountain Road west of Valley View Boulevard, taking more than $800,000 in watches.

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

Duong is facing the death penalty in a California prison in connection with a May 1999 quadruple homicide and has yet to go to trial on federal racketeering charges, including charges relating to the Las Vegas robbery.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney James Chou told the jury that they would hear from Duong's former girlfriend who will tell them that Duong was the mastermind behind a gang that robbed several Chong Hing and other jewelry stores in California as well as the Las Vegas store.

"She'll tell you that when she asked Duong what he did he asked her if she'd seen the movie 'Heat,' " Chou said.

"Heat," a 1995 film, features a violent group of professional thieves led by Robert De Niro who brazenly commit robberies using automatic weapons.

Like the robberies in the film, the Chong Hing Las Vegas robbery was well-planned and was a quick hit, with the robbers in and out of the store with the watches in less than two minutes.

Both Duong and Nguyen are California residents. Nguyen, originally from Vietnam, was first charged in September 2001.

Nguyen's trial before U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson is expected to last two to three weeks. Among the witnesses scheduled to be called are Loong Gee Tam and Darlene Ko, who were both working at the store at the time of the robbery.

Kennedy said that both will testify that the robbers were different heights and not the same height, as Nguyen and Duong are. Tam, who has since moved back to Hong Kong will testify through a videotaped deposition.

Prosecutors said they plan to call several people who know Duong, including his former girlfriend who is alleged to have been involved in two robberies with the gang, but is cooperating as a government witness.

Chou, who is based out of the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, said that he will also call a friend of Nguyen's who will testify that Nguyen was broke and in debt in the summer of 1999, but then he disappeared for a while.

"When Nguyen came back to Southern California later in 1999 he had a new Mercedes, a $20,000 watch and plenty of money," Chou said.