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11/15/1996 - DENNIS NATALI MURDERED: "Detective Nigel Phillips describes the setting of the murder -- San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district."  11/1996 - INFORMANT COMES FORWARD: "Adachi rehearses opening statement calling into question the reliability of the prosecution's star witness, Jason Waxler." This story is culled from the defendant's own words, information given to the public defender, and the court records of the case. |
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TENDERLOIN CONFIDENTIAL This timeline details the specifics of the case dubbed "Tenderloin Confidential" and Jeff Adachi's defense of defendant Lam Choi. |
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11/15/1996 - CUONG TRAN MURDERED Alleged Vietnamese gang boss Cuong Tran, said to be running the gambling and massage parlor business in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, is murdered outside the Pierce St. Annex bar. According to eyewitnesses, an Asian male chased Tran, fired one shot that felled him, then stood over him and fired two more shots, execution style, into Tran's head. |
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11/15/1996 - DENNIS NATALI MURDERED Eight minutes earlier and a mile away, Dennis Natali, well-known San Francisco criminal defense attorney and political fund-raiser, is murdered by one bullet through his back as he drives home in his BMW which then crashes into a fire hydrant. According to a sworn deposition by Police Inspector Joseph Toomey, Natali had links to Tran and represented one of his cohorts in "The TL Boys" gang. The proximity of the Tran and Natali slayings, in both time and place, sparks speculation that they are connected and related to either drugs or gang activity. The San Francisco press links the cases under the name "Tenderloin Confidential." |
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11/1996 - POLICE QUESTION CHOI'S GIRLFRIEND The telephone numbers on Dennis Natali's pager lead Police Inspector Toomey to the apartment of Vivienne Huynh. Her boyfriend is Lam Choi, one of the names on Toomey's list of suspects. Huynh tells detectives that two days before the Tran murder, Choi came to her apartment and told her that Tran had threatened him. In return, Choi told Tran that if he ever saw Tran outside the Tenderloin, he would shoot him. After the killing at the Pierce St. Annex, Choi told Vivienne it was "either me or him." |
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11/1996 - INFORMANT COMES FORWARD Asian gang member Jason Waxler, a white male, aka "Phuc," goes to the police and offers to tell all about the murder of Tran in exchange for entering a witness protection program. In his statement to the police, Waxler claims he was told to kill Tran but decided against it as he sat with Choi inside the Pierce St. Annex bar the night of the murder. Waxler claims that Choi then pulled a gun, chased Tran down the street and killed him. Waxler's testimony leads to the arrest of three other people the police claim were participants in the murder with Choi. |
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12/6/1996 - LAM CHOI ARRESTED AS SHOOTER Choi is arrested with three alleged accomplices, based on Jason Waxler's and Vivienne Huynh's statements to the police. As Choi is 17 years old, he is sent to juvenile hall and his name withheld from the press. |
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What Happened Next?
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