Jury Calls for Execution of Gang Member Who Killed 4 in Nightclub

A Pomona Superior Court jury on Monday called for the death penalty for a gang member convicted of fatally shooting four people at an El Monte nightclub in 1999.

Anh The Duong, 28, of Costa Mesa, is to be formally sentenced March 7 by Superior Court Judge Robert Martinez.

Duong was accused of firing a .45 semiautomatic into a booth at the International Club where three men and a woman sat. Killed were Minh Tran, 28, of West Covina; Hao Trang, 28, of El Monte; Robert Norman, 20, of Garden Grove; and Lan Cang, 23, of Long Beach. Three of the victims were strangers to Duong.

The club has since closed.

After the shootings, Duong eluded capture for nearly two years, and the case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” Authorities arrested Duong while he was playing basketball at a Costa Mesa 24-hour fitness center in July 2001.

Duong still faces charges in three Bay Area slayings, according to his attorney, Gary Meastas.

Duong was not in the courtroom Monday when the jury’s penalty phase verdict was read. When told of the decision, Meastas said, Duong had no visible reaction.

Meastas will ask the judge to consider life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.