Sacto 9-1-1

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Chu Vue testified today that his wanted-for-murder brothers found out that his wife was breaking up with her lover and that he heard one of them say, "This guy knows too much."

The former Sacramento sheriff deputy's statement about his brothers came at the end of a day of testimony where he denied having anything to do with the killing of state correctional officer Steve Lo.

Defense attorney Donald Masuda said in his opening statement to the jury at the outset of trial that Vue's younger brother Gary Vue killed Lo on his own because he thought the officer was going to turn in the brothers.

Vue (left) testified that he had been telling his younger brothers Gary and Chong Vue himself to turn themselves in for a 2001 murder in Minnesota for which they were ultimately convicted.

In a phone conversation with his brothers a few days before Steve Lo's death, Chu Vue said he told Chong Vue about the end of his wife Chia Vue's affair with Lo.

"Chong said, 'Can we trust this guy Steve Lo?'" Chu Vue testified. "I said, 'I don't know, but you guys leave it alone. Go back to Minnesota.'"

The testimony did not explain why the brothers would have had a problem with Lo. But Vue testified earlier in the day that Chia Vue knew the brothers were murder fugitives.

Masuda also suggested in his opening statement last month that Lo would have known about the brothers' circumstances through Chia Vue.

Vue testified that he then heard his brother Gary say in the background, about Lo, "This guy knows too much."

In earlier testimony, Chu Vue admitted that it was his truck depicted at least twice driving down Steve Lo's street in the month before the state correctional officer was shot and killed in the garage of his south Sacramento home.

But Vue said he had good reason to be driving down Tambor Way - his wife, Chia Vue, was having an affair with Lo, and he was checking to see if she was there.

Authorities say surveillance videos on the block captured Vue's vehicle on two other occasions driving down Lo's street, but Vue said he was not sure it was his truck.

Police and prosecutors say it was Chu Vue's anger and jealousy over his wife Chia Vue's affair with Lo that drove him to arrange for his two younger brothers to carry out the fatal Oct. 15, 2008, shooting.

Authorities say Vue was casing Lo's home when he conducted his drive-bys. He testified today that was not the case.

When he drove by Lo's house on Sept. 16, 2008, he said that he and his wife had already informed their two younger children they were getting a divorce. He said he drove by the house that day "to see if she was out there."

On Sept. 24, 2008, Vue said he was supposed to meet his wife at a gym not far from Lo's house but that she didn't show up.

"I didn't see her at the workout," he said. "After I did my workout, I figured I'd drive by and check if she was there." He told the jury, "I was just looking for her."

Vue is expected to spend the rest of the afternoon testifying in his Sacramento Superior Court trial in front of Judge Steve White.

Vue said in his morning testimony today that his wife admitted that she was having an affair with Lo when he asked her about mysterious telephone numbers that were showing up on their monthly bills.

Chia Vue told him in early September 2008 that their marriage was finished.

"We're through," he said she told him in a phone message. "I will leave you everything - the house, the kids. I will start a new life with someone," Vue quoted his wife as saying.

He said she also admitted she was having sexual encounters with several other employees at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, where Chia Vue and Steve Lo also worked.

Also in his testimony today, Vue tried to explain why his two younger brothers who were wanted for a 2001 murder in Minnesota were living in a mobile home on a 20-acre piece of property he bought - surreptitiously, under a relative's name -- in 2007, near Corning in Tehama County.

He said his younger brothers Gary Vue and Chong Vue had contacted him from a place they were hiding out near Fresno. He said he spoke to Chong Vue and told him he needed to go back to Minnesota and turn himself in.

But Chu Vue said he offered to let the two of them stay at the Corning property until he got back from a vacation in Laos in late 2007 when "we could resolve the issue."

"I know it was harboring," Vue said, admitting to the felony violation of harboring his brothers who were wanted fugitives at the time on the murder warrant out of Minneapolis.

Vue said he acquired the property in the first place to use as a base for his hunting and fishing hobbies.

The former deputy, under questioning from his attorney, Donald Masuda, also sought to undercut the prosecution's contention that he and his brother Gary were close enough to carry out a murder plot together by testifying that they had a lousy relationship.

Vue said he first helped send Gary Vue off to Minnesota when the younger brother got into gang activity in Sacramento as a youth. When he found out Gary was involved in a murder in Minnesota, he said he exploded.

"I talked to him and I said, 'Why do you do the same thing over and over again?'" Vue testified. "He said f-- off. Get out of my business...So I beat him up."

He said he told Gary Vue in a later conversation, "I hope you go to prison for life."

Chu Vue said his conversation with Gary Vue took place in mid-2006, after he first learned that Gary and Chong were wanted for the Minnesota for which they were later convicted.

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