No Parole for Man Guilty of Mile Square Murder

Parole was denied Tuesday for Phong Phan, the Santa Ana man convicted in the 1990 murder of a man and the attempted murder of two others at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley.

On Sept. 8, 1990, Hoa Le, Lee Phung, and two other friends were at Mile Square Park taking photographs. Phan and four co-defendants, including Hao Day Thai and Hoang Xuan Nguyen, drove to the park to confront Thai’s neighbor, Phung. Thai was upset because he believed Phung had recently called the police on Thai’s wife.

Once at the park, Thai engaged Phung in a verbal argument and then shouted, "Just shoot and kill them all." Phan aimed his gun at Phung’s head and pulled the trigger, but it failed to fire. The four victims began to run away while the defendants shot at them.

Phung was shot in the back by Nguyen. Another victim scaled a wall into the yard of a house as the defendants shot at him, but he was uninjured. Le was shot in the left leg and fell to the ground. Nguyen then ran up to him and shot Le in the head, killing him. The defendants got back into their cars and fled.

Phan wasn't arrested for the murder until 19 months later after he was held on commercial burglary charges in Chino. Senior Deputy District Attorney Paul Odwald, who originally prosecuted the case, appeared at the hearing to oppose Phan’s parole. Phan will be eligible for his next parole hearing in 2015.