In addition to the lack of evidence, there's a glaring omission in the official

account of Heng's murder. And that's the humanity of the three defendants, who've

been reduced only to quote unquote

crackhead gang bangers. Nowhere do we hear their version of events, not in the

LAPD's investigation, not during the trial, and not in the L.A. P. D. T.

and not in any media coverage of the murder.

In fact, we never even hear the defendant's voices,

except briefly during the sentencing hearing when they proclaim their innocence.

And by then, obviously, it's much, much too late.

Early in our reporting, we reached out to Jason Chan and Indrelim, who declined to be interviewed.

And we tried to reach Tachshan Tan, but we had a very hard time tracking him down.

Court records show that talk was released from

prison in 2020 after a new law came into effect that basically increased the

burden of proof for past felony murder convictions. A judge retroactively determined

that the evidence against Toc did not meet that burden. Almost immediately

though, talk was taken back into custody and we couldn't find any more information.

Eventually we spoke to Tock's lawyer, Marty Rosenbluth, and he told us what was going on.

Basically what happened is that because she didn't have permission to be here,

as soon as he finished his state criminal sentence, he passed into ice custody.

Toxon Tan doesn't have American citizenship.

He'd come to the US as a child seeking asylum from Cambodia.

But because of his felony conviction, his refugee status was revoked, and US immigration officials were trying to send him back to Cambodia.

...