2 Boys Found Guilty in Death of Mother of 14

Two Vietnamese boys, 12 and 13 years old, who admitted taking part in a robbery in which a Santa Ana mother of 14 children was shot to death, were convicted of first-degree murder in Juvenile Court on Tuesday after offering no defense.

The two admitted in taped confessions to police that on May 5 they and three other masked gunmen stormed into the home of Trung Ngo and his wife, Huyen Thi Hoang, officials said.

The 46-year-old woman was killed by one of the gunmen while praying in her bedroom, away from other family members, who had been rounded up and ordered into the living room.

Police are still searching for Sau Van Le, 14, of Garden Grove, who is accused of actually shooting the woman. Trial is pending for two other young men charged with murder and robbery--Dun Nguyen, 17, and Tien Van Nguyen, 20, both of Garden Grove.

The two convicted Tuesday, 12-year-old Quoc Kien Ngo and 13-year-old Man Huynh, both of Anaheim, will be sent to the California Youth Authority, where the average stay in murder convictions of juveniles is about six years.

“It’s sad,” said Dennis McNerney, attorney for Ngo. “Peer group pressure gets to these kids. They want to impress people, so they get some guns and they get involved in something like this.”

The two youths who appeared in court Tuesday denied in their confessions that they had guns, but relatives of the dead woman who were interviewed by police said all of the intruders were masked and armed.

The two juveniles who confessed said Sau Van Le, the suspect still at large, had told them he shot the woman by accident after she screamed and startled him.