As legal wrangling continues at the state level over when to resume executions, Sonoma County prosecutors are trying to decide whether to push for the death penalty in a 30-month-old case involving the slaying near Jenner of a trial witness.
District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua still is weighing whether the March 2008 killing of Vutha Au, 24, for which six reputed Asian Boyz gang members have been charged, qualifies as "the worst of the worst."
As he conducts what has been called an exhaustive background investigation, the meter is running for county taxpayers. Five of the six defendants have court-appointed attorneys and the four that face "special circumstances" allegations that could lead to the death penalty have a second lawyer, also at public expense.
If Passalacqua decides later this month to seek capital punishment, the cost to the county could rise as high as $1 million, according to a special report to the Board of Supervisors. The Sonoma County Counsel's Office, which handles the defense billings in the case, has refused to disclose the amounts paid.
"I don't think you can put a price on justice," said prosecutor Traci Carrillo, who is handling the case.
An announcement is on the death penalty is expected Oct. 22. at a court hearing that will include defense motions seeking separate trials.
If the district attorney seeks death, it will be the first time since he took office in 1992. Four men are on San Quentin State Prison's death row for murders committed in Sonoma County, the result of sentencings from 1990 to 1997.
A state commission on criminal justice said in 2008 that invoking capital punishment adds at least $500,000 to the cost of a murder trial. Passalacqua has said financial issues do not factor in his decision.
Prosecutors allege Au was killed in a parking lot at Blind Beach so he couldn't testify on behalf of his brother, 23-year-old Terry Au, who authorities say was kidnapped and beaten by a group of drug-dealing gangsters including one of the defendant's brothers.
Vutha Au was shot nine times.
Five Santa Rosa men and a Suisun City man were charged with Au's murder. They are Quentin Russell, 27, who is accused of shooting Au, Preston Khaoone, 24, Boonlack Chanpheng, 29, and brothers David, 22, and Sarith Prak, 24. Also charged is Tyrone Tay, 28, of Suisun City.
Some of the men were arrested after they were seen driving near Goat Rock not far from the shooting scene. A jailhouse informant and former Asian Boyz gang member linked others to the crime in testimony at a preliminary hearing.
Prosecutors have said they will not seek a death sentence for Chanpeng and Tay but have left open the possibility for the others.
Two special circumstances, the intentional killing of a witness to prevent testimony and a killing to benefit a street gang - allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty upon conviction.
A trial is expected to begin by early next year.
If any of the men are convicted and jurors opt for the death penalty, it is unclear whether or when they would be put to death. Executions were expected to begin this fall in San Quentin's new death chamber but were halted at the 11th hour over questions about the supply of lethal injection drugs.
Since California restored the death penalty in 1978, eight men have been sentenced to execution in Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.
The most recent death recommendation by a Sonoma County jury was for Robert Walter Scully Jr., who was convicted of killing sheriff's Deputy Frank Trejo with a sawed-off shotgun in 1995.
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