Ng Takes Stand, Denies Slayings

SANTA ANA — In a dramatic move at the close of his marathon case, accused serial killer Charles Ng took the stand in his own defense Wednesday, insisting he wasn’t involved in multiple murders that occurred 14 years ago in a remote Northern California cabin.

Telling his story in court for the first time, Ng suggested that the dozen murders were committed by Leonard Lake, who lived in the cabin and committed suicide soon after he was arrested in 1985.

Wearing an untucked shirt and slouching slightly over the stand, Ng repeatedly denied killing anyone but acknowledged that he helped Lake bury the body of one victim.

He characterized his relationship with Lake as one of subservience.

“He was older than I was,” Ng said. “I’d follow his advice and respect his judgment. . . . I tried my best to conform to his expectations.”

But Ng stated emphatically that he never killed. “There is a line I would not cross. Killing somebody, something serious. I wouldn’t do it,” he said.

Ng’s testimony came unexpectedly amid closing arguments in what is one of California’s longest-running and most expensive murder cases. With the case about to go to the jury, Ng demanded that Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan allow him to testify--apparently against the advice of his own attorneys.

After a closed-door meeting with Ng early Wednesday, Ryan agreed to let the defendant take the stand and decided that prosecutors, who will question Ng today, could present further closing statements after the testimony concludes.

“It’s extraordinary,” Robert Pugsley, a professor at Southwestern University College of Law, said about Wednesday’s testimony. “But that same word can characterize the majority of this case. This is just further evidence of Ng’s ability to run circles around the judicial system and manipulate this process.”

Ng at times argued pretrial motions on his own behalf and tried repeatedly to dismiss his court-appointed attorneys--something critics said contributed to the length of the case.

Some family members of the victims, who were in court Wednesday, said they weren’t swayed by Ng’s testimony.

“The guiltier you are, the more you are going to try to pin it on someone else,” said Lola Stapley, the mother of Scott Stapley, one of 12 people Ng is accused of killing for financial gain and sexual gratification.

“That is the true sign of being guilty,” she said.

Ng’s testimony mirrored the picture his attorneys have presented to the jury: their client as Lake’s patsy.

Many of the defense questions Wednesday to Ng centered on allegations made by Joseph Maurice Laberge, a cellmate of Ng’s in a Canadian jail. Before he died in an auto accident, Laberge told authorities that Ng shared key details about the murders.

Ng on Wednesday strongly denied the confession, dismissing Laberge as a “jailhouse snitch.”

Ng had fled to Canada, where he was caught in July 1985 while attempting to steal food from a store in Calgary. He wounded a security guard and served 4 1/2 years in prison.

American authorities demanded Ng’s extradition, but Canada does not have a death penalty law and is reluctant to extradite defendants to countries that do. The case created an uproar on both sides of the border. Canada finally granted the extradition in September 1991.

The case was moved to Orange County because of pretrial publicity in Northern California.