Posted on 07/24/2014 4:36:30 PM PDT by BenLurkin
SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Two women were convicted of voluntary manslaughter Thursday in the beating death of a 23-year-old woman outside a Santa Ana nightclub.
Candace Marie Brito, 27, and Vanesa Tapia Zavala, 26, were found guilty of killing Kim Pham during a Jan. 19 melee outside the Crosby Bar and Nightclub.
Jurors found Brito and Zavala guilty of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. Sentencing was set for Sept. 12.
Pham got into a fistfight with another woman, identified by defense attorneys as Emilia Calderon, before falling to the ground and being surrounded by Calderon’s friends.
When officers arrived they found Pham, who appeared unconscious, on the sidewalk.
Pham was declared brain dead when she arrived at a hospital and was disconnected from life support two days later, after her organs were harvested.
Dr. Etoi Davenport, who performed the autopsy on Pham, testified during the trial that she sustained six major blows to the head, and any one of them could have killed her.
Prosecutors relied on witness accounts and two cellphone videos during the trial to argue the defendants kicked her in the head.
Attorneys for Brito and Zavala countered that the videos were inconclusive and couldn’t prove whether Pham suffered fatal injuries from the fistfight with Calderon or after she fell to the ground.
Zavala’s attorney, Kenneth Reed, told jurors that prosecutors failed to prove a cause of death in the case, making acquittal necessary. Reed also argued that the victim was also punched by other people, which could have caused her death, and said his client did not kick Pham.
The Crosby Bar and Nightclub has since been closed.
78.2% Latin.
10.5% Vietnamese.
9.2% or White. The rest mixed.
That 9.2% White figure is all law enforcement.
One word - noose.
police, fire and medical
90% minority?
I think you mean ILLEGAL ALIEN from SOUTH OF THE BOARDER don’t you?
I didn’t live in Santa Ana but did a lot of business down there; was a Downey resident for over 30 years, fortunate enough to escape that So Cal crap hole 4 years ago.
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