Jury out in Dao Xiong Murder Trial

Attorneys made their closing arguments to the jury Thursday in the case of Dao Xiong, 20, the Oakdale man accused of killing Youa Ty Lor after he advertised his car for sale on Craigslist.

Here were their main arguments:

On the players:

Prosecuting Attorney John Fristik: Lor was a hardworking immigrant from Thailand, who was trying to sell the Nissan 350z he’d put his “heart and soul” into for the good of his family of six, he said. He’d hoped to use the $16,000 he was charging for the car to open his own auto shop.

“Little did Ty know that the man who wanted to buy his car was a fraud, a fake and a wolf in sheep’s clothing; he was a killer in waiting,” Fristik said.

Defense attorney F. Clayton Tyler: Xiong is no “assassin,” he said. He isn’t even a thief, he said, so nervousness caused him to shoot Lor and drive off.

“It’s out of character for him to steal a car,” he said, “but to shoot and kill someone is further over the top.”

He’s no genius, he said, rather he’s a high school dropout.

“He made an ill-conceived plan and it went terribly wrong.”

Xiong’s supervisor in the National Guard testified that he was trustworthy, he said and went so far as to say he would trust Xiong with his life.

After police found him, he said, Xiong cooperated and gave them a detailed account of the incident.

“He tried to be as helpful as he could,” he said. “That’s not the type of character you would find in a person who is a cold-blooded assassin.”

On whether Xiong planned to kill Lor:

Fristik: “This was a plan from day one,” Fristik said.

Two days before the murder, Xiong purchased a pre-paid TracFone from Target so calls couldn’t be traced back to him, he said. On the same day, he said, he texted a friend, asking “You want to kill a guy with me?”

The gun Xiong took with him was loaded and ready to fire. If he’d just planned to rob him, he said, why not take one of the two fake guns that were found in Xiong’s home?

His excuse to pull the car over in a remote area of Lake Elmo was that the car was making a rubbing noise.

“Do you think he just thought of that?” Fristik asked.

After they pulled over, the two men spent about an hour at looking at the car. If the incident was a plan to rob gone awry, Fristik asked, why didn’t Xiong just flash the gun and tell Lor get out of the car?

“But, this wasn’t a plan to rob, it was a plan to kill,” Fristik said.

Xiong also thought to grab Lor’s cell phone to make it more difficult to connect him to the crime, he said.

He told police he believed he had taken Lor’s life, he said, because he read in history that stomach wounds are harder to fix and heal.

“His intent to kill is all over the evidence everywhere you look,” he said.

Tyler: Lor’s death wasn’t accidental, but it was unintentional. It was a plan to rob gone awry.

The text message Xiong sent to his friend asking “You want to kill a guy with me?” is out of context, he said. People make statements like this all the time, he said, saying things like, “I could kill so-and-so or I wish so-and-so was dead.”

“Does (that question) define this entire case? I think not,” he said.

The idea that Xiong was planning an “assassination” doesn’t make sense, he said, for a few reasons.

First, he said, why would he have “chit chatted” for an hour while people could drive by and see the two together if he planned to kill Lor? Second, he said why would someone kill another person just for a car? Third, he said, if he wanted to kill Lor, why wouldn’t he have shot him more than once? Fourth, he said, if he’d planned the killing, why wouldn’t have done it someplace else and dumped the body?”

“You don’t do it in broad daylight,” he said.

Xiong’s statements to witnesses after the incident also indicated he didn’t intend to kill Lor, he said.

He told his girlfriend that he hoped Lor was all right, and he asked the police if Lor had survived, he said.

“If you intended to kill someone, you wouldn’t have that type of concern,” he said.

On whether the gun could have unintentionally gone off:

Fristik: Pulling the gun on Lor wasn’t a split-second action, he said.

First, Xiong told him he had to relieve himself. That gave him the opportunity to pull the gun out of his jacket and put it in his pants.

The day before the incident, he said, Xiong had called his brother to ask how to use the gun’s safety mechanism.

It takes five to six pounds of pressure to pull the trigger on that gun, and forensic scientist Kurt Moline, testified that he dropped the gun and hit it with a rubber mallet and could not get it to go off accidentally.

Tyler: Just like a new driver might have a “death grip” on the steering wheel or someone speaking in public might have a “death grip” on their podium, nervousness caused Xiong’s muscles to clench and pull the trigger, he said.

When Xiong asked his brother about the safety, he could have been asking because he wanted to know how to engage, not disengage it, he said.

On the crux of the case:

Fristik: “Everything about this operation was well plotted out and planned,” he said.

Tyler: The evidence supports the theories of both the prosecution and the defense, however the burden of proof is on the prosecution, so the defense should win the case.

“You’ve got to give the benefit of the doubt to the defense,” he said.        

The jury began deliberations Thursday afternoon. They were scheduled to deliberate until 6 p.m. and then start again at 8:30 a.m. Friday morning. The jury must decide whether Xiong intended to kill Lor—making him guilty of second-degree murder—and whether it was premeditated, which would make him guilty of first-degree murder, Judge Ellen Maas said.