Sacto 9-1-1

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Chu Vue's defense lawyer told a Sacramento Superior Court jury today that his client had nothing to do with the killing of correctional officer Steve Lo nearly two years ago.

The attorney, Donald Masuda, conceded that the two younger brothers of the former Sacramento sheriff's deputy shot and killed Lo on Oct. 15, 2008, in the garage of the officer's south-area home.

But Masuda took strong issue with the prosecution's contention that Chu Vue had Lo killed because the officer was having an affair with the former deputy's wife. Masuda said Chu Vue had moved on from that relationship, that he was surfing around himself on the Internet -- accessing websites such as hmonghotties.com and match.com -- and that Vue had begun his own new affair.

Instead of a love triangle, Masuda said Lo was killed by Gary Vue, one of Chu Vue's younger brothers, because Gary Vue thought that Lo was going to turn him in to Minnesota authorities to face charges on a 2001 murder. Gary Lo has since been convicted and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for the Minnesota murder.

Masuda, in providing an outline of his defense for the first time in the case, said there was evidence that Steve Lo planned to break up with Chu Vue's wife, Chia. Masuda said that in his time with Chia Vue, he "knew all about" the Chu Vue family and that Gary Vue believed that Lo would inform the authorities in Minnesota about his whereabouts.

"Gary was worried that he'd get ratted out by Steve Lo," Masuda told the jury.

In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall said it was the oldest murder motive known to man that prompted Chu Vue to plan the killing, but that it will be the miracles of modern technology that will prove he planned it out.

Once he found out his wife was having an affair with Lo, Vue illegally accessed sheriff's computers to find out where Lo lived, Kindall told the jury

Then, the prosecutor said, Vue scoped out the victim's neighborhood during drive-bys of Lo's house in south Sacramento that were captured on a security camera set up across the street and a couple of houses over from the Lo residence, Kindall said.

At the same time Vue was checking out Lo's residence on Tambor Way, calls traced back to the former deputy's cell phone pinged off towers situated closest to the Lo residence, the prosecutor said. Kindall said the calls matched the times that the surveillance pictures of Vue were taken on Lo's street.

Kindall said Vue got his younger brothers, Gary Vue and Chong Vue, to shoot and kill Lo.

Lo, 39, was gunned down in his garage just as he was leaving for work at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. It was at the Solano County prison where Lo had begun an affair with co-worker Chia Vue, a CMF medical technical assistant and the wife of Chu Vue.

Chu Vue, now 45, is on trial in the case along with his cousin and co-defendant, janitorial business owner Lang Vue, 27. Kindall said Lang Vue rented motel rooms and cars and later bought the Chevy Blazer the triggermen used to flee Sacramento and return to Minnesota, where they were wanted in a 2001 murder.

Gary Vue and Chong Vue have since been convicted in the gang-related Minneapolis slaying. They are scheduled to be tried separately for murder in Lo's death.

In his one-hour, 25-minute opening remarks to the jury, Kindall said the evidence "will establish that Chu Vue planned the murder."

"He was the one and the only one with the motive to kill Steve Lo," Kindall said.

Vue ran his background check on Lo and conducted his own surveillance, then planned and financed the officer's slaying, which Lang Vue facilitated, the prosecutor said.

Lang Vue's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Matthew Scoble, said his client was "used" and "betrayed" by Gary and Chong Vue and that that he was "an unwitting pawn in somebody else's plan."

"There will be not one shred of evidence, not one iota of evidence, that Lang Vue had any knowledge of that plan," Scoble said.

Scoble admitted that Lang Vue knew Gary Vue and Chong Vue were fugitives who were wanted for murder at the time he rented them motel rooms and cars.

"You, in all likelihood, will convict Mr. Vue of harboring a fugitive," Scoble told the jury. "But as to the charge of murder, ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that when the prosecution's case is concluded, you will find that the government has fallen short."

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.