Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2005 | 8:34 a.m.
A man who has pleaded guilty to being a getaway driver for a gang of violent jewelry store thieves testified Monday that Vu Nguyen was involved in a 1999 robbery in Las Vegas that resulted in the slaying of a security guard.
Bach Nguyen, no relation to Vu Nguyen, who is facing federal charges in connection with the robbery, testified that he spoke to Vu Nguyen following the Sept. 16, 1999, robbery of the Chong Hing Jewelers at Chinatown Plaza.
"We met in San Francisco, in a coffee shop downtown," Bach Nguyen said on the witness stand in U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson's courtroom. "Vu was visiting his girlfriend and he told me the details of the robbery.
"He said the security guard was shot and killed."
Vu Nguyen is charged with conspiracy and robbery affecting interstate commerce, and use of gun in a violent crime resulting in the death of Kenneth Bailey, a 37-year-old security guard from Henderson, who was fatally shot when two masked men robbed the Las Vegas location of Chong Hing Jewelers.
The robbers got away with more than $800,000 in high-end watches, including Patek Philippe watches ranging from $1,500 to as much as $65,000 apiece, according to court documents.
The trial is in its third week, and federal prosecutors on Monday called Bach Nguyen to the stand. Bach Nguyen has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with another Chong Hing robbery in Northern California in July 1999, and is cooperating with the government in its prosecution of other alleged members of the robbery ring.
Bach Nguyen has not yet been sentenced, but remains incarcerated while the government's cases against the ring move forward.
Bach Nguyen testified that he drove a secondary car, or switch-car, for the July robbery, picking up the two robbers after they ditched their get-away car. He said he was going to serve the as the switch-car driver in the Las Vegas robbery but backed out at the last minute.
Bach Nguyen also testified that when he met with Vu Nguyen in San Francisco in 1999, Vu Nguyen was wearing a Patek Philippe watch worth more than $20,000.
During cross examination, Assistant Federal Public Defender Michael Kennedy questioned Bach Nguyen about inconsistencies in what he has told the FBI. Bach Nguyen admitted that in six interviews with the FBI since 2001 he has never told agents or prosecutors that he saw Vu Nguyen wearing a Patek Philippe watch when they met in San Franciso, and that he first mentioned it about a month ago.
The second alleged robber in the Chong Hing Las Vegas robbery is Anh The Duong, who prosecutors say is the leader of the robbery ring. They also say he shot and killed Bailey at the store off Spring Mountain Road west of Valley View Boulevard.
Duong has yet to go to trial on federal racketeering charges, including the charges relating to the Las Vegas robbery, and could face the death penalty in connection with a May 1999 quadruple homicide.
Both Duong and Vu Nguyen are California residents. Vu Nguyen, originally from Vietnam, was first charged in September 2001.
Vu Nguyen's trial was scheduled to continue today with more of Kennedy's cross-examination of Bach Nguyen.
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