Defense Labels Lindberg’s Crime ‘Disgraceful’ but Denies It Was Racial Gunner Lindberg

SANTA ANA — An alleged Nazi sympathizer on trial in the stabbing death of a Vietnamese American was portrayed Thursday as an unremorseful killer who boasted about his crime.

But the defense insisted that Gunner Lindberg, 24, of Tustin, did not intend to rob Thien Minh Ly or kill him because of his race--acts that could make Lindberg a candidate for the death penalty.

During closing arguments, defense attorney David Zimmerman told the Orange County Superior Court jury that the crime was “disgusting.”

“We’re not here to discuss whether we’re disgusted,” he said. “We’re here to discuss whether the evidence is sufficient.”

The closing arguments capped a case in which prosecutors presented DNA evidence and an alleged confession by Lindberg.

The defense presented three witnesses, including a former girlfriend, whose combined testimony lasted about an hour.

The trial focused on Jan. 28, 1996. Ly, 24, who was a Georgetown University graduate, was visiting his parents when he went in-line skating on a nearby tennis court.

Lindberg and a friend allegedly pulled a butcher knife on the victim. There was nothing to steal, and Lindberg stabbed Ly about 50 times, prosecutors said.

“A little white boy skating in there wouldn’t be dead right now,” prosecutor Debbie Lloyd told jurors in arguing for the hate-crime charge. “It’s obvious that [Lindberg] did the murder. . . . Not only that, he’s proud of this crime.”

In a letter that Lindberg admitted writing to a cousin after the slaying, he bragged that he “killed a Jap.”

The defense did not dispute Lindberg’s role in the killing but insisted that robbery and racism were not motives.

“There’s other explanations--initiation, showing off, a thrill,” Zimmerman said. “It doesn’t make it right, but it doesn’t make it a hate crime either.”