Death penalty phase of murder trial under way

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer
Jurors must decide fate of Lake Elsinore man | Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:13 PM PST ∞

FRENCH VALLEY ---- Having already decided that Tony Ricky Yonko murdered a Lake Elsinore man inside his home five years ago, a Southwest Justice Center jury must now determine whether he lives or dies for his crime.

Last month, it took the seven-woman, five-man jury about a day to find Yonko guilty of the Oct. 22, 2002, murder of 41-year-old Paul Dinh Ngo. His body was found by his two young sons when they came home after Ngo never showed up to pick them up from school that afternoon.

"This is going to be the most difficult time of this trial because you will have the most difficult task," Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Stephen Gallon told jurors in his opening statement Thursday.

Because jurors found that the first-degree murder happened during a burglary or robbery, they now begin the second phase of the trial to decide whether Yonko, 45, of Lake Elsinore, receives the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

One of Yonko's two defense attorneys, Elaine Johnson, implored jurors to spare his life, asking them "to be beacons of life and of hope."

Johnson told them they are now judges of "whether another man dies because God summoned him or because the warden has summoned him."

Attorneys on both sides laid out a verbal blueprint of the evidence they anticipate jurors will hear during the next few weeks.

Johnson presented what she called "a case for life," outlining Yonko's Gypsy heritage and childhood, detailing the history of the Gypsy culture and showing jurors numerous photos of her client growing up.

Yonko was born on a road a few miles outside Las Vegas as his family traveled with carnivals, she said. His parents had 12 children, including him, from 1960 to 1974, three of whom were named Tequila, Champagne and Nixon.

Because his family ---- like most Gypsies ---- traveled so much, Yonko attended little or no school growing up, Johnson said, and he was taught around the age 5 or 6 to scam and steal from non-Gypsies.

Johnson explained that Yonko has been diagnosed as mentally retarded and has an IQ of 65.

"He is not intelligent at all. At all," Johnson said.

Johnson told jurors that a likely scenario in the killing of Ngo was one of a "spontaneous altercation." Yonko believed the house was empty because there was a "for rent" sign outside, she said.

There was no evidence of forced entry and Yonko brought no weapon into the home he was going to burglarize, Johnson said. The hammer used to kill Ngo likely belonged to Ngo, according to testimony at the trial.

When detailing his case, Gallon, the prosecutor, told jurors they will hear about and can consider not only the gravity of the murder itself but also Yonko's previous acts of violence and any prior felony convictions.

Yonko was convicted in Los Angeles County in 1997 of three separate first-degree burglaries, Gallon told them. He also was arrested in 1987 in connection with an arson to an inhabited apartment in Los Angeles.

Another example of Yonko's violent background, Gallon said, dates back to 1984.

"This was a violent and vicious gang rape; five males on one woman," the prosecutor said.

The attack involved a knife, he told jurors, and Yonko was one of the five men.

When police confronted Yonko the next day, without first being asked anything about the reported rape, Yonko immediately told them "it was consensual," Gallon said.

The woman who reported the crime is expected to testify next week.

Jurors heard testimony Thursday from Yonko's nephew, John Yonko, 19, who Gallon said was assaulted by the defendant in 2001.

Gallon had earlier told jurors that Tony Yonko grabbed his nephew, 13 at the time, by the throat and punched him in the face. The prosecutor said the assault ---- at Tony Yonko's Lake Elsinore home ---- happened because his nephew was not supposed to be there visiting Tony Yonko's son, Dutch.

However, on the witness stand Thursday, John Yonko denied being attacked by his uncle, saying the confrontation was his fault. He said he was the first to apply force and that his uncle didn't punch him.

"All he did was restrain me so I'd do nothing wrong," John Yonko said.

According to Gallon, that is contrary to what John Yonko told police in 2001. The prosecutor is expected to call the officer who interviewed John Yonko to the witness stand to impeach the teen's testimony.

Gallon asked the teen a series of questions about the confrontation in which the boy's uncle reportedly grabbed him by the throat and punched him in the face. John Yonko denied that any of that happened.

He did admit that, after the confrontation, he ran, crying, to a neighbor's home and told a man he didn't know how to call the police.

During questioning by Tony Yonko's other attorney, Erin Kirkpatrick, John Yonko said he told the stranger to call police because he was mad at his uncle.

"I overreacted. I was young," he told jurors.

Kirkpatrick asked him if he was lying now to help his uncle.

"No, I'm not lying," he said.

Testimony is scheduled to continue before Judge Judith Clark on Monday morning.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.