Fountain Valley Gang Member Convicted in 1995 Execution-style Murder

A Fountain Valley gang member and three accomplices face life in prison after being convicted Tuesday in the 1995 murder of a fellow gang member in retaliation for abandoning them while committing a home invasion robbery.

Giang Thuy Nguyen, 36, along with Anthony Paul Johnson, Jr., 35, Westminster, Tam Hung Nguyen, 36, Riverside, and Truc Ngoc Tran, 34, Santa Ana, were each found guilty by a jury of one felony count of murder and one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder with sentencing enhancement allegations for murder by lying in wait and committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

On the morning of Feb. 24, 1995, Johnson, Giang Nguyen, and fellow gang member Viet Nguyen committed a masked home invasion robbery in Huntington Beach at the home of a high school classmate of Viet Nguyen. During the robbery, Viet Nguyen fled the scene and left his fellow gang members because he believed that the victim in the house may have recognized him.

On the evening of Feb. 24, 1995, Johnson, Giang Nguyen, Tam Nguyen, and Tran met at a house in Midway City and conspired to murder Viet Nguyen in retaliation for fleeing during the robbery that morning, and to prevent him from implicating Johnson and Giang Nguyen in the robbery if he were to be identified by the victim and arrested. Early in the morning on Feb. 25, 1995, Johnson and Giang Nguyen convinced Viet Nguyen to take Tam Nguyen with him in his van under the pretense of buying drugs. Giang Nguyen gave Tran the keys to another car, which Tran used to follow Viet Nguyen’s car without the victim’s knowledge.

While Viet Nguyen was driving, Tam Nguyen directed him to drive through various areas in Orange County under the pretense of looking for the home of a specific drug dealer associated with Tam Nguyen. Tam Nguyen, who was riding in the back seat, claimed to feel ill while Viet Nguyen was driving on the northbound California State Route 73 in Costa Mesa. When Viet Nguyen pulled the van over to the shoulder, Tam Nguyen shot the victim in the back of the head, executing him.

Tran, who followed the van in a separate car as part of the plan to murder Viet Nguyen, pulled behind the van on the shoulder of the freeway so that Tam Nguyen could get into the car and escape from the scene of the crime. The four co-defendants later met at a motel in Anaheim to hide their involvement in Viet Nguyen’s murder.

To avoid retribution from their gang for murdering a gang associate, the defendants lied to other members of their gang by falsely stating that Viet Nguyen had been killed by a drug dealer in Costa Mesa. The case went cold until 2006, when the Costa Mesa Police Department began re-investigating with assistance from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.