Posted on: Thursday, March 29, 2001

Murder defendant's plea hearing postponed

By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer

A federal court hearing to decide if murder defendant Richard Lee Tuck Chong will be allowed to withdraw an earlier guilty plea stalled yesterday when it was revealed that Chong was taking medicine for an irregular heart beat.

Birney Bervar, Chong's lawyer, told federal Judge Alan Kay that he learned just before the court hearing yesterday that Chong was taken by ambulance Tuesday night from his prison cell to The Queen's Medical Center after doctors diagnosed a heart problem.

Bervar told Kay that Chong indicated he wanted to proceed with the hearing. But Kay said his own research into the possible side affects of the medicine prescribed for Chong showed that it might impair Chong's ability to think clearly.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson told Kay that it would be more prudent to reschedule the hearing so that Chong could not later challenge any outcome of yesterday's hearing by claiming he was impaired by the medicine.

Chong, who also goes by "China" Chong, pleaded guilty in January 2000 to the 1997 drug-related murder of William Noa Jr. at a Makaha Beach park. Chong was accused of shooting Noa, 33, in the head over a $100 drug debt.

Chong agreed to a life sentence in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping their effort to have him executed if convicted of murder.

Chong was the first person in Hawaii to be prosecuted under a federal law that allows for the death penalty in murder cases related to a drug enterprise.

Chong later said he was not guilty, always wanted to go to trial and was taking medication that impaired his ability to think clearly when he pleaded guilty. He has said he wants to withdraw the guilty plea and go to trial on the murder charge, even if it means prosecutors will once again seek his execution.

Judge Kay rescheduled Chong's hearing for April 25.