Gunner Lindberg
Gunner Lindberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Gunner Jay Lindberg March 1, 1975 |
Criminal status | Imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison in California[1] |
| Convictions | First degree murder with special circumstances First degree assault |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Date apprehended | March 2, 1996[2] |
Gunner Jay Lindberg (born March 1, 1975)[3] is an American convicted murderer on death row in California. Lindberg, a neo-Nazi, was convicted of the 1996 murder of 24-year-old Vietnamese American Thien Minh Ly in Tustin, California.[4][5]
Before the murder of Ly, Lindberg already had a history of assaults, the first at age 13. In October 1990, at age 15, Lindberg chased a migrant worker off a work site, calling him as a "wetback" before beating him with a tree branch and robbing him. The man had his arm broken and sustained severe cuts to the face. The same month, Lindberg assaulted a fellow teenager and committed a home invasion, during which he beat the elderly occupant after she gave him money. While imprisoned in Missouri, Lindberg became a member of the White Aryan Resistance and since 1994, Lindberg was also a letter correspondent with imprisoned Christian identity leader Gordon Mohr, who shared Lindberg's hostile views on Black and Asian people.[6] He last served most of a five-year prison sentence for another first degree assault after shooting an 11-year-old boy three times with a pellet gun in 1992. One of the pellets had struck an artery and lodged in the heart of the boy.[7]
On January 28, 1996, Lindberg wanted to celebrate that evening's Super Bowl XXX victory by the Dallas Cowboys by finding "a Jap". Lindberg and an accomplice, 17-year-old Domenic Michael Christopher, encountered Ly, who was rollerblading around the tennis courts at Tustin High School. Lindberg and Christopher trapped Ly on the courts, beat him, kicked him, and then stabbed him many times. Prosecutors also charged Lindberg with a hate crime and bullying.[8]
While in Orange County jail, Lindberg attacked and injured two Vietnamese cellmates. He later made varying statements about his beliefs, claiming he was both a Christian and Satanist, as well as asserting he was half-Apache. He acknowledged that his accomplice Christopher was half-Japanese, but that he accepted Christopher as he was apparently also half-Apache.[6]
Christopher was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison and was released in April 2023.[9]
On August 29, 2008, the Supreme Court of California affirmed Lindberg's convictions and death sentence.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Inmate Information: LINDBERG, GUNNER JAY[dead link]. CDCR Number: K79300. Current Location: San Quentin State Prison. Information current as of: 07/12/2019
- ↑ Blanchard, Geoff; Filkins, Dexter (March 3, 1996). "Police Say Suspect Organized Gangs in Two States". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 31, 2018.
- ↑ "The First Non-White,White Supremicist on Death Row-Wanna be his Pen Pal??? I Think Not". Unreliably Yours. August 29, 2008. Archived from the original on November 18, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2023 – via WordPress.com.
- ↑ Anton, Mike (August 30, 2008). "Death penalty upheld in O.C. hate killing". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ Boucher, Geoff; Filkins, Dexter (March 3, 1996). "Police Say Suspect Organized Gangs in Two States". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
- 1 2 Moxley, R. Scott (July 17, 2008). "When Gunner Jay Lindberg Killed Thien Minh Ly, Was It Actually a Hate Crime?". OC Weekly.
- ↑ Boucher, Geoff; Filkins, Dexter (March 3, 1996). "Police Say Suspect Organized Gangs in Two States". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 12, 2025.
- 1 2 Moxley, R. Scott (August 28, 2008). "OC Hate Crime Killer Headed For Lethal Injection". OC Weekly. Archived from the original on July 29, 2010. Retrieved June 10, 2012.
- ↑ https://www.oxygen.com/the-real-murders-of-orange-county/crime-news/gunner-lindberg-domenic-christopher-murder-thien-ly
- 1975 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American criminals
- American neo-Nazis
- American people who self-identify as being of Apache descent
- American people convicted of murder
- American people convicted of hate crimes
- American prisoners sentenced to death
- Inmates of San Quentin State Prison
- People convicted of murder by California
- People convicted of racial hatred offences
- People from Orange County, California
- Prisoners sentenced to death by California
- Racially motivated violence against Asian Americans in California