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A mistrial was declared Thursday in the trial of a 32- year-old man charged with gunning down a bookie he worked with in a Huntington Beach parking lot when jurors deadlocked on a verdict.
Dennis Tri Gia Dang worked as a middleman in the victim's sports betting operation. Gamblers he had vouched for had amassed a debt of about $60,000, which the victim held Dang responsible for, according to court testimony.
More than a dozen friends and relatives of the victim, Linh Ho of Fountain Valley, were present each day of trial, as were the parents of the defendant, Dennis Tri Gia Dang, 32, of Westminster.
The defendant's attorney said his client received threats from the bookie he worked for as a middleman and acted in self-defense, but prosecutors say he planned the killing to escape a $60,000 debt.
The man who was fatally shot near Warner and Magnolia was a bookie, and the defendant was a middleman who had fronted bets to gamblers who had fallen behind on their debts, according to evidence and testimony presented in court.