UPDATE, JUNE 28, 10:55 A.M.: Authorities have identified the third man who allegedly tried to rob a medical-marijuana deliveryman–only to watch his partner get shot and killed by a security guard–as 20-year-old Hwa Sung Sim.
Because Minh Kinh Dang of Santa Ana was killed in the apparent commission of a robbery, Sim; James Yi, 18, of Irvine; and Earl Augustus Austin, 19, of Santa Ana, were originally held by police for suspected murder. But the three pleaded to charges and sentencing enhancements related to robbery on Monday in Orange County Superior Court.
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Austin pleaded guilty to felony
attempted robbery, with a possible sentencing enhancement for the use of a
firearm in the commission of a
felony. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 19.
Yi and Sim pleaded not guilty to the same charge and possible sentencing enhancement, while Yi also denied a second possible sentencing enhancement
for the use of a dangerous or deadly weapon. They are scheduled to return to court July 6 for a pretrial hearing.
ORIGINAL POST, JUNE 23, 11:52 A.M.: Police say Minh Kinh Dang and three friends tried to rob a medical-marijuana deliveryman in Brea Wednesday night.
But after Dang whipped out a gun, the deliveryman's security guard produced his own and fatally shot Dang, according to police.
Now, Dang's three accomplices are being held for his murder.
This all went down just before 8:15 p.m. in the Birchwood Village apartment complex, located at 1717 E. Birch St., Brea. The unidentified guard fired three rounds at Dang, and the sound of the blasts produced a police call of shots fired.
Officers arrived and, after seeing Dang's dead body on the ground, initially held the guard. But after questioning him and the deliveryman, also unidentified, as was his Los Angeles medical-marijuana dispensary, they were released.
Arrested for armed robbery and Dang's murder were: James Yi, 18, of Irvine; Earl Augustus Austin, 19, of Santa Ana; and an unidentified third male.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.