2 more suspects arrested in killing

<p>Detectives have arrested two more men in the slaying of Vutha Au, saying they were with him when he was kidnapped and involved in killing him to keep him from testifying in a criminal trial.</p><p>Tyrone Rosenblad Tay of Suisun City and Jack Houmpheng Sengsourith of Santa Rosa were arrested Wednesday, Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Rob Giordano said Thursday.</p><p>Both are associates or friends of all the parties involved. "We believe they were part of it," Giordano said.</p><p>The arrests bring the total to six men suspected in the killing of Au, 24, who was taken to a parking lot near Goat Rock on the Sonoma Coast early Sunday and shot nine times.</p><p>Tay, 26, and Sengsourith, 29, are to appear in Sonoma County court today. They are being held without bail on suspicion of murder.</p><p>Preston Khaoone, 22; Quentin Russell, 24; and brothers David Prak, 19 and Sarith Prak, 21, also are being held on murder charges. They were arrested Sunday after deputies stopped their car, headed east on Highway 116 near Monte Rio just moments after a park ranger found Au's body and relayed a description of a car he saw leaving the scene.</p><p>Investigators believe Au was killed to prevent his testimony this spring in a case against two brothers of Khaoone, both of them charged in the kidnapping and extortion of Au's brother, Terry Au, 22, in October.</p><p>Terry Au testified against his alleged assailants over two days last fall, identifying Perry and Pongsony Khaoone and Boonlak Phanchanh as the men who kidnapped him, beat him and threatened to cut off his fingers unless he paid them $5,000.</p><p>Terry Au, who acknowledged selling drugs for Perry Khaoone and a fourth Khaoone brother, also testified that members of his family were participating in the Witness Relocation and Assistance Program.</p><p>District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua said they were supposed to stay out of the area, but Giordano said Vutha Au had been returning on weekends to visit friends.</p><p>Giordano said Au was with Tay and Sengsourith in their car at an undisclosed Santa Rosa location when he was forced into another car by the other four defendants, driven to the coast and shot to death.</p><p>Those four, all believed to be members of the Asian Boyz gang, have been charged with first-degree murder and participating in a street gang. Those involved in the kidnapping case also are alleged to be members of the gang.</p><p>Two special circumstances -- the intentional killing of a witness to prevent his testimony and killing to benefit a gang -- were filed in conjunction with the murder charge, allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty.</p><p>An autopsy showed Au was shot nine times in the head, neck and torso, from various angles. Although all four of the men arrested Sunday are charged with intentionally firing a weapon, investigators have said they believe only one man fired the gun, which hasn't been recovered.</p><p>Assistant District Attorney Christine Cook didn't return calls seeking comment on whether prosecutors intend to pursue capital punishment.</p><p>In court Thursday for a related hearing, Deputy District Attorney Traci Carrillo told Judge Ken Gnoss she wasn't prepared to state prosecutors' intentions.</p><p>Tay and Sengsourith both have prior arrests in Sonoma County, according to court records.</p><p>Sengsourith had a misdemeanor drunken driving charge dismissed in 2002 after a judge ruled a search was unconstitutional.</p><p>Tay's local criminal history dates to 2001, when he was convicted of a misdemeanor weapons charge and sentenced to two years' probation. A co-defendant in that case was Veasna Prak, 27, an older sibling of the two Prak brothers arrested in Au's killing.</p><p>In 2002, Tay was convicted of another misdemeanor weapons charge and again given two years' probation. A 2003 misdemeanor traffic violation resulted in another two-year probation stint.</p><p>In 2005, he was convicted of misdemeanor driving without a license and sentenced in 2007 to another two years of probation, to expire in April 2009. He was arrested early Wednesday at his Suisun City home, Giordano said.</p><p>Sengsourith was arrested later at his Santa Rosa home.</p><p>Also Thursday, Russell made his first appearance in court, but no explanation was given for the reported mental health issues that kept him away from court earlier in the week.</p><p>Russell "was unable to come to court" when his three co-defendants were arraigned on Tuesday, Gnoss said. In a private hearing at the jail later Tuesday, Gnoss ordered a psychologist to evaluate Russell's mental competency and report back.</p><p>In court Thursday, Russell's new court-appointed attorney, Martin Woods, objected to Dr. Steven Ranish revealing anything he learned from examining Russell.</p><p>"Because this is a potential death penalty case, I need to proceed cautiously," Woods said.</p><p>Russell, who was shackled at the waist for security purposes, seemed lucid and engaged in the proceedings. He appeared displeased when a different attorney declined to take the case because he already is representing Perry Khaoone in the kidnapping case.</p><p>The youngest Khaoone brother, Pongsony, also a defendant in the kidnapping case, was 15 when he faced charges in the 2002 shooting death of Jonathan Townsend, a Windsor 18-year-old who was killed after confronting a group of young men outside his mother's apartment in Santa Rosa.</p><p>Khaoone pleaded no contest to gang, weapons and accessory charges in exchange for a murder charge being dropped. He was arrested in the kidnapping case less than a year later.</p><p>His co-defendant pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 31 years in prison.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writers Lori A. Carter at 568-5312 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com, and Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@press</p><p>democrat.com.</p>