Lindberg Trial Witness’ Intimidation Story Backed

SANTA ANA — A doctor told jurors Monday he had no reason to dispute a Missouri man’s claim that he had been shot in an attempt to prevent him from testifying against Gunner Lindberg, who is accused of a hate-crime killing.

Defense attorneys had implied that Walter Ray Dulaney, Lindberg’s cousin, may have been lying when he told investigators he had been shot a few months ago by someone who yelled: “You want to put your cousin on death row? Here’s death row!”

Dr. Richard Fukumoto, a pathologist for the Orange County coroner’s office, said he looked at the scar on Dulaney’s torso and determined that it was consistent with a bullet wound.

Dulaney had testified that, several months after the 1996 slaying, he received a letter in which Lindberg confessed to killing “a Jap.”

Police investigators believe the victim in the letter was Thien Minh Ly, a college graduate who was practicing in-line skating in Tustin near his parents’ home when he was stabbed 14 times near the heart.

Investigators later found white supremacist paraphernalia in Lindberg’s bedroom, along with a pair of black leather gloves with blood that contained DNA evidence consistent with Ly’s blood.

Prosecutors contend that Lindberg murdered Ly in a robbery attempt and a hate crime, both of which are special circumstances that could make Lindberg liable to the death penalty if convicted.

In a key ruling for the prosecution Monday, Superior Court Judge Robert R. Fitzgerald decided that jurors could hear evidence that Lindberg had assaulted another Vietnamese American in a race-related attack at the Orange County Jail.