Trial Set in Shooting Death of CHP Officer

SANTA ANA — A trial date was set Friday for the man charged with gunning down a rookie California Highway Patrol officer last year.

Hung Thanh Mai, 26, was ordered to stand trial April 20 in the death of Officer Don J. Burt, who was shot during a traffic stop.

Mai, 26, is charged with murder with the special circumstance of murdering a peace officer. The district attorney’s office announced Thursday that it will seek the death penalty for Mai if he is convicted.

Burt, 25, was shot seven times after he pulled over a white BMW for a traffic violation in Fullerton on July 13, 1996. The driver took off in Burt’s CHP cruiser and abandoned it near an apartment building where Mai lived.

Mai was ordered to stand trial last April after a two-day preliminary hearing that was marked by testimony alleging that Mai’s involvement in a Vietnamese gang and a counterfeit check ring.

During the hearing, a former associate of Mai who turned him in to the FBI testified that Mai shot Burt after the officer found proof of Mai’s ties to organized crime during a search of the BMW. Burt found a bundle of forged payroll checks.