"Guilty of the Murder": The Verdicts Against Charles Ng Are Read in Court, AP Footage, 1999

Name: "Guilty of the Murder": The Verdicts Against Charles Ng Are Read in Court, AP Footage, 1999
Uploaded: 2015-07-21T00:00:00Z
Duration: 1 min 22 s
Description: AP footage from Santa Ana in February 1999 as the court clerk reads the jury's verdicts finding Charles Ng guilty of murder, count by count. Ng does not speak.

AP footage from Santa Ana in February 1999 as the court clerk reads the jury's verdicts finding Charles Ng guilty of murder, count by count. Ng does not speak.

Subject: Charles Chitat Ng
Recorded: about February 24, 1999
Runtime: 1:22

Content warning: Concerns the murders of eleven people, among them two young children; no graphic detail is spoken in the video.

The Recording

This is an 82-second Associated Press news item from February 1999, posted by AP on its own archive channel. It was filmed in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, California, as the jury's verdicts in the trial of Charles Ng were read. The only voice heard is the court clerk's, reading the verdict forms: "We, the jury, in the above-entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Chitat Ng, guilty of the murder of Harvey Dubs, as charged in count three." The readings for Harvey Dubs and Michael Carroll are heard in full; two further readings are cut short in AP's edit, and the last words heard are the clerk beginning to poll the jury; the final 20 seconds or so show the courtroom and spectators without speech. There is no narration. Ng himself is not heard.

Historical Context

Charles Ng, a former U.S. Marine born in Hong Kong, and his friend Leonard Lake killed a series of men, women and children at a cabin in Calaveras County, California, in 1984 and 1985. The case came to light in June 1985, when the two men were suspected of shoplifting at a lumber store in South San Francisco and Lake was arrested. Lake took cyanide in custody and died. Ng fled to Canada, was arrested there, and was extradited to the United States in 1991. His trial was moved to Orange County on a change of venue.

Circumstances of the Recording

The jury returned its verdicts on February 24, 1999, about fourteen years after the discovery at Lake's cabin. It found Ng guilty of eleven counts of first-degree murder with a multiple-murder special circumstance, and failed to reach a verdict on a twelfth count. AP's story, dated the next day, described the case as one of the longest and costliest homicide prosecutions in California history, with an estimated cost of about $14 million, and reported sighs of relief from victims' families and friends as the verdicts were read.

What the Recording Covers

The clerk reads the verdict on count three, the murder of Harvey Dubs, with the jury's finding that it was murder of the first degree, then the verdict on count seven, the murder of Michael Carroll. Two further readings begin and are cut off by the edit. The last words heard are the clerk saying "Juror number one" as the poll of the jury begins; the rest of the item is pictures without speech.

What Makes the Recording Significant

The footage preserves the sound of the guilt verdicts being read, the end of the trial phase of a prosecution that had taken nearly fourteen years to reach a jury's decision. It is not a recording of Ng, who says nothing in the footage.

Archival Importance

With AP's items on the jury's death verdict of May 3, 1999 and the formal sentencing of June 30, 1999, this item completes AP's record of the three court days that ended the case: verdict, penalty and sentence.

Important Caveats

Charles Ng does not speak in this video. The clerk who reads the verdicts is not named. Only two of the eleven guilty verdicts are heard in full; the item does not present all of them. AP's story is dated February 25, 1999; the verdicts were read on February 24. AP's description says the victims were "seven men, three women and two baby boys"; the eleven convicted counts comprise six men, three women and two boys, and AP's own May 1999 story says "six men." AP's description also mentions a woman who used to date one of the victims; she is not heard in the video. The graphic claims in AP's written story are not spoken in the video.

Court Clerk: We, the jury, in the above-entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Chitat Ng, guilty of the murder of Harvey Dubs, as charged in count three. We further find the murder to be of the first degree.

Court Clerk: We, the jury, in the above-entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Chitat Ng, guilty of the murder of Michael Carroll, as charged in count seven.

Court Clerk: [Edit; reading joined in progress.] ...above-entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Chitat Ng, [unclear: "four person" / "for ... person"].

Court Clerk: We, the jury, in the above-entitled case, find the defendant, Charles Chitat Ng... [Edit.]

Court Clerk: Juror number one. [00:58 to 01:22: no confirmed words. Whisper has a segment at 00:58, "We the jury in the above entitled case, as charged in count seven", not in the captions and probably a machine repetition. The captions have the single word "those" at 01:19, not in Whisper. Clip ends.] ---