Crimes & Court
September 28, 2000
Mother Begs for Mercy for Son
- Colorado Springs, Colo.-The three judges deciding the fate of convicted killer George Woldt will consider the testimony of two grief-stricken mothers. Woldt and his former roommate Lucas Salmon were convicted in separate trials for kidnapping, raping and murdering a woman in 1997.
Woldt’s Korean-born mother, who defense lawyers say is mentally ill, testified behind closed doors on Aug. 25. Song-Hui Woldt said that her son hated her because she is Korean. In a recent letter presented in court, George Woldt wrote that he would pay someone to murder his mother if he could videotape it and watch it over and over.
His lawyers claim that his paranoid schizophrenic mother embarrassed him and sexually abused him, causing permanent psychological damage that may have clouded his judgment on the night he and Salmon committed murder.
Estranged Husband Charged in Killing
- Eagan, Minn.-Murder charges were filed on Aug. 23 against the estranged husband of a police homicide worker found shot to death in her home.
Fu Joseph Heu, 38, was charged in Dakota County with second-degree intentional murder in the death of Marie Heu, 34. He was still on the loose on Aug. 23.
A witness who was at the home late on Aug. 21 told police that the couple were arguing and Marie Heu told her husband to get out of the house. The witness heard a gunshot and Marie Heu screaming for help, and Fu Heu yelled that the two of them were “going to die together,” according to Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom. The witness ran out of the house to get help, returning to find Marie Heu dead.
Police sought the public’s help in finding Fu Heu, described as Asian, brown-eyed, 5 feet 3 inches and 165 pounds. Anyone with information is asked to call Eagan police at 651-681-4700.
Hmong Festival Shooter Gets 50 Years
- Green Bay, Wis.-A man accused in the gang-related shootings of two teen-agers was sentenced to 50 years in prison. At the sentencing on Aug. 15, Oconto County Circuit Judge Larry Jeske called Pha Vue, 21, “a menace to society” who acted with “utter disregard for human life.”
Vue, of Wausau, was found guilty in June of two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide with gang and weapons enhancers. The 1998 gunfire at the Brown County Fairgrounds during a Hmong festival wounded two 17-year-old boys. One of them was struck in the spine and remains partially paralyzed.
Man Accused of Stalking API Women Sentenced
- Dallas, Ore.-A Salem man accused of stalking Asian college women was sentenced to 34 months in prison Monday by Polk County Circuit Judge Charles Luukinen.
Bruce Allen Sitton, 44, apologized for an incident early June 20 at a Monmouth apartment complex but offered no explanation why he crawled through a window into a woman’s bedroom. He pleaded guilty to charges of burglary and unauthorized use of a vehicle in that case but did not admit to any of the other 21 incidents reported in the Monmouth area during an eight-month period.
An additional six incidents were reported in the Corvallis area. All involved women living off-campus from Western Oregon University or Oregon State University.
Final Defendant Pleads Innocent to Assault
- Vestal , N.Y.-The final defendant in the beating of a Binghamton University Korean American student pleaded innocent on Aug. 25 to a misdemeanor third-degree assault charge.
Chad Scott, 18, said nothing as he was arraigned. Scott and two other students, Nicholas Richetti, and Christopher Taylor were initially charged with felony charges of second-degree gang assault in the Feb. 27 beating that fractured fellow student John Lee’s skull. But the gang assault charges were reduced despite demonstrations and pleas from students and the Asian American community both here and in New York City. Richetti and Taylor have pleaded guilty to lesser charges.
Scott was released on his own recognizance. He is being prosecuted as a youthful offender because the charge is a misdemeanor. Already suspended from the college until 2002, he faces a maximum of six months in jail if convicted.
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