Fresno man gets 50 years to life in prison for killing his father

A Fresno man was sentenced Wednesday to 50 years to life in prison for killing his father last year at the front door of the family’s southeast apartment.

Peter Yang, 26, told Judge W. Kent Hamlin that he killed his father, Foung Yang, to stop the molestation of his two young sons.

The defendant made the same accusation during his Fresno County Superior Court trial, but never mentioned it to police detectives after his arrest in June last year.

A jury last month deliberated only 80 minutes before finding Yang guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Foung Yang, who was shot six times in the face, neck, right shoulder and back.

During the trial, prosecutor Gabriel Brickey told jurors that the slaying “was a cold-blooded execution” because the victim was unarmed and only had a bag of apricots in his hand.

Peter Yang, however, testified he was protecting his family when he fatally shot his 59-year-old father. He told the jury that Foung Yang had molested and beaten him as a child and recently had molested Peter Yang’s two young sons.

The slaying happened around 6:30 p.m. on June 6, 2014, at Torrey Ridge Apartments on Clovis Avenue near Tulare Avenue.

When Foung Yang died, he had opiates in his body, defense attorney Scott Baly told the jury.

Peter Yang also had drugs in his body when he shot his father. He told the jury he used methamphetamine in order to stay awake and protect his children from his father.

Tension was high in the family, Baly said, because Peter Yang, who had been injured in a car wreck, took care of his two sons, ages 6 and 3, while his wife worked at a retirement home. Baly said Peter Yang was upset with his unemployed father because Foung Yang asked his son for money, did drugs in the apartment when the children were there, and came and left as he pleased.

In addition, Peter Yang testified that his father did not love him or his siblings because his father felt obligated to marry their mother, who was first married to Foung Yang’s brother in Laos. When his brother died, Foung Yang married his brother’s wife, his son testified. “In the Hmong culture, we don’t let women be stranded, left alone,” Peter Yang explained to the jury.

On the day of the killing, the father and son had a physical altercation before the father left to take Peter Yang’s wife to work. When Foung Yang returned to the apartment, he was carrying a plastic bag filled with apricots, Brickey said. He knocked on the front door several times before his son answered.

Without warning, Peter Yang fired his Glock 19 eight times at his father, who was 5 feet away, Brickey told the jury.

On the witness stand, Peter Yang explained that he feared his father, and that when he started firing the gun all he could see was his sons’ faces. “At the time I am only thinking of my children.”

Brickey, however, told the jury that the defendant’s account of his father’s abusive behavior was unsubstantiated.

Unlike during his trial, when family and friends attended every day of the proceedings, no one was in the courtroom Wednesday to support Peter Yang.

“His wife and children and family have moved out of state,” Baly explained outside court.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 1:43 PM with the headline "Fresno man gets 50 years to life in prison for killing his father."