Dane Williams / Philong Huynh |
SAN DIEGO -- Two jurors picked for the roughly five-week trial of a City Heights man accused of drugging and raping a 23-year-old Huntington Beach man told the judge they could not spare the time and were let go, court officials said today.
A dozen jurors were sworn-in for the trial of Philong Huynh, 39, who is charged with murder and a special circumstance allegation of murder during sodomy or oral copulation in the Jan. 26, 2008, death of Dane Williams.
Alternate jurors were being picked when the process was interrupted.
Judge Robert O'Neill questioned both reluctant jurors about their reasons for being unable to spare the time, then excused them from service.
Jury selection will continue Wednesday, court officials said.
Williams, who was in San Diego for convention on behalf of a Costa Mesa skate and surfwear firm, disappeared after leaving the Hard Rock Cafe in the Gaslamp Quarter.
He was intoxicated and seen falling to the ground when he left the club, prosecutors said.
His body was found three days later in an alley about a block from where Huynh lived. His underwear was missing and semen was found on his shirt and in his mouth and anus, authorities said.
Huynh is also charged with sodomizing a second intoxicated young man last year. DNA evidence collected in that case allegedly tied Huynh to Williams' murder.
During a four-day preliminary hearing last year, Billy Sharrock, the former co-owner of a company that produced gay porn, testified that Huynh told him he liked to show young men a good time, then offer them something to "relax'' and "have his way'' with them.
He testified that Huynh said he liked straight guys because they were "more of a challenge.''
Drugs were found in Huynh's home, as was a prescription for drug similar to Valium that was filled in January 2008, the month Williams was killed, according to prosecutors.
Huynh faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
