Cruelty Of Lui Killer Leads To Long Sentence -- Man, 20, Gets 70- Year Term In Widow's Slaying

Dung Hoang Le was not part of a gang, but his savage slaying of Mayme Lui and his brazen attempt to extort money from her family show the effects of growing gang influences within the Asian community, her son-in-law said at yesterday's sentencing hearing.

"Underlying this crime is the attitude of some immigrant and refugee youths that anything goes, that as long as it stays within the community nothing will be done," said David Okimoto, who also heads a task force on Asian gangs.

"It was within this context that he killed my mother-in-law. He thought he could get away with it, and he thought he could extort money from us and we wouldn't go to the police."

King County Superior Court Judge Faith Enyeart sentenced Le to 70 years in prison for the Sept. 10 murder of Lui, the 74-year-old widow of photography-studio founder Yuen Lui.

She said she based her decision on the deliberate cruelty Le perpetrated on a vulnerable woman.

Le, 20, approached Lui in the garage of her Beacon Hill home asking for directions. He then repeatedly stabbed her, carved her wrist to remove a jade bracelet, dumped her body down an embankment and tried to extort $100,000 from her family.

Le, who had stared blankly ahead throughout his May trial and most of the sentencing hearing, cried when his sister and mother pleaded to Enyeart to show mercy.

Le was portrayed by his family and defense attorneys as a docile, shy boy who changed suddenly a month before the killing when he got into a car accident. The accident triggered a brain defect, attorneys argued.

Le told psychologists that he thought Lui was the headless ghost of his dead grandmother.

Enyeart said she received 168 letters and more than 3,700 signatures calling for harsh punishment.

She said she believed Le's actions, including dumping the woman's body down an embankment "like so many lawn clippings," was not only cruel but was the act of a criminal who knew what he was doing.

Lui's grown son, Wah Lui, received a call late Sept. 10 and was told by a man who identified himself as a member of the "China Boys" gang that he had kidnapped her.

At sentencing, Lui showed the anger and frustration pent up since his mother's death 10 months ago.

"Ever since this happened I have been obsessed with the thought of revenge," he said. "I would like to take him into a garage, stab him 24 times in the chest so he knows what it feels like. Then I would cut his wrist and dump him in the garbage.

"He didn't just stumble upon my mother's house. He went into there like a man walking into a bar and looking for a fight. He was trying to certify his manhood."

Le, a Ballard High School graduate, had no criminal history since immigrating from Vietnam with his family nine years ago, but he had had personal problems before the killing, including getting his girlfriend pregnant.