SANTA ROSA (BCN) -- One of six people accused in the alleged gang-related shooting of  a 24-year-old man on the Sonoma County coast last year was held for trial on  a murder charge Monday morning by a Sonoma County Superior Court judge.

Quentin Russell, 26, of Santa Rosa, an alleged Asian Boyz gang  member, also was held to answer to charges of being a member of a criminal  street gang and kidnapping the murder victim, Vutha Au, whose body was found  in a parking lot at Blind Beach on March 2, 2008. He had been shot several  times.

The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office charged Russell and  five others with the special circumstances of lying in wait, killing in  furtherance of a street gang, murder during a kidnapping and killing a  potential witness. Each of the four special circumstances make the six  defendants eligible for the death penalty.

Au was a possible witness at the trial of three men charged with  the alleged gang-related kidnapping for ransom, extortion and robbery of his  brother, Terry Au, 24, in October 2007.

One of the defendants in the kidnapping, extortion and robbery  case is the brother of one of the six murder defendants.

Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Gnoss this morning held  Russell for trial on all of the special circumstances except killing of a  potential witness. Gnoss ruled that no evidence was presented during the  10-week preliminary hearing, which was for all of the defendants, that  Russell was aware Vutha Au was a potential witness.

Gnoss will rulrith  Prak, 23; Preston Khaoone, 23; Boonlak Chanpheng, 28, all of Santa Rosa; and  Tyrone Tay, 28, of Suisun City.

They also are charged with murder, the four special circumstances,  being members of a street gang and kidnapping.

Russell is scheduled to re-enter pleas to the charges Nov. 5.

Carrillo said the district attorney's office has not yet decided  whether to seek the death penalty against the six defendants.
     
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