Sacto 9-1-1

By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

Chu Vue testified today that it was his daughter who first told him that Steve Lo had been shot and killed, but that he had no idea at the time who might have done it.

Deputy District Attorney Eric Kindall, in his second day of cross-examination, expressed incredulity that Vue didn't know who had done it, in that he had spoken to his brothers in the preceding weeks and that one of them had told him they wanted to "jack" Lo up.

"If I knew who it was them who did the killing, I wouldn't be sitting here right now," Vue testified.

Vue, 45, a fired former Sacramento sheriff's deputy, is accused of murder on charges that he arranged Lo's slaying because the victim was having an affair with Vue's wife.

He testified his daughter woke him up at noon the day of the Oct. 15, 2008, shooting of Lo to tell him that she had spoken to her mother and "she said something about mom's boyfriend being killed."

The questioning came as Kindall continued his relentless cross-examination, wearing Vue down with literally hundreds of questions the past two days about the timing of his phone calls and the contents of the conversations he had with his on-the-lam brothers in the month leading up to the shooting death of Lo, a state correctional officer.

Vue seemed to grow tired as the morning wore on, his voice dropping several decibel levels.

He was at a loss to explain his dozens of calls to his younger brothers Chong and Gary Vue.

In one conversation, Kindall noted that Vue was calling one of his brothers at 6:51 p.m. on Sept. 21, 2008, at the same time his car was seen driving past Lo's south Sacramento house. It was a little more than three weeks before Lo was gunned down in his garage while he was going to work.

"I don't know," Vue answered, when asked what they were talking about. "I don't recall why I'm making that phone call."'

Vue had testified he was looking for his wife. Prosecutors say it was her affair with Lo that motivated Vue to have the 39-year-old victim killed. The younger brothers are accused of carrying out the fatal shooting attack.

Asked if he was angry while he was looking for his wife, Vue replied, "I'd say I was angry, yes."

Later that same evening, Chong Vue's cell phone pinged off the transmission tower closest to Chu Vue's house, but the former deputy denied that the brothers ever stayed at his residence or that he ever saw them there after Minnesota authorities swore out a warrant for their arrest for a 2001 murder in Minneapolis. They were later convicted in that case.

An hour after Chong Vue's phone pinged off the tower closest to his brother's house, it pinged again off the tower closest to Steve Lo's house.

Lo was shot and killed Oct. 15, 2008. Chong Vue and Gary Vue are scheduled to be tried for Lo's murder next year.

Some of Kindall's pointed questions contained what police and prosecutors believe are the answers to the events that led up to Lo's killing.

When Vue could not explain why his cell phone pinged off the tower near Lo's home three times on Sept. 27, 2008. Kindall asked, "It certainly had nothing to do with your conducting a surveillance on Steve Lo's home?"

"No," Vue replied.

Kindall noted that on Sept. 28, 2008, Vue was running a trace on a number he retrieved from his wife's cell phone, some three weeks after he said he had come to terms with the fact their marriage was through.

"Why are you still snooping on her on the 28th of September, Mr. Vue?" Kindall asked.

"I don't think it was snooping," Vue replied. "I was curious."

"Curious or obsessed, Mr. Vue?" Kindall asked.

Judge Steve White sustained defense attorney Donald Masuda's objection to Kindall's question.

The cross-examination continues this afternoon in Sacramento Superior Court.

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