Koua Fong Lee Story
Koua Fong Lee came to America with his family from a Thailand refugee camp in 2004, looking for a better life and to get an education. Instead, Mr. Lee has been serving an 8-year prison sentence for criminal vehicular homicide, following a 2006 car crash that killed three people. Lee was driving his family home from church on June 10, 2006, when he exited Interstate 94 at Snelling Avenue in St. Paul Minnesota. Lee saw a red light and stepped on his brakes. According to Mr. Lee, the brakes failed to stop the car, causing the 1996 Toyota Camry he was driving to strike another vehicle, killing three people. Mr. Lee has always maintained that he stepped on his brakes repeatedly, yelling to his family ”brakes not working!”
Investigators calculated that his car was traveling 70 to 90 miles an hour when it slammed into the back of a stopped Oldsmobile, instantly killing Javis Adams, 33, and his 10-year-old son, Javis Adams Jr. Another passenger, 6-year-old Devyn Bolton, died from her injuries more than a year later.
After examining the vehicle, a mechanic found nothing wrong with the brakes. Prosecutors argued that Lee stepped on the gas, not the brake, and a jury agreed, convicting him of criminal vehicular homicide and sentenced him to 8 years in prison.
Lee's attorney Brent Schafer says his client has always focused on the brakes as the problem. "He could only explain what happened in that he tried to apply the brakes and it didn't work and that the vehicle would only accelerate up the ramp," Schafer said.
Lee's crash is among a growing number of cases, some long resolved, getting new attention after Toyota began large-scale recalls of newer model cars due to problems with sudden unintended acceleration. His attorney, Brent Schafer, has filed affidavits from more than three dozen people who described experiencing sudden acceleration in their older Toyotas.
On Tuesday, August 3, 2010 during the second day of an evidentiary hearing, two more victims of sudden acceleration testified that their vehicles sped out of control just like Koua Lee’s 1996 Toyota Camry. Expert witnesses also testified about important key facts -- reasons his lawyers say Koua Lee should be given a new trial. “From the moment Lee stepped out of the vehicle and was interviewed by the police officer at the scene he said he was pushing the brakes,” said defense attorney Bob Hilliard. “He said that through trial and his lawyer stood up and told the jury the exact opposite.” In the original trial his attorney told a jury that Lee may have simply been confused. That he mistakenly pressed the gas when he thought he was hitting the brake. But Lee never gave his attorney permission to make that statement. “This is your lawyer telling the jury that you’re wrong,” said Hilliard. “That his client is wrong,”
Samuel Sero, a forensic engineer testified that Lee’s Toyota Camry was equipped with ABS brakes at the time of the accident. But the jury that convicted Lee of criminal vehicular homicide was told the car did not have anti-lock brakes. “That’s a big deal because they had to show the brakes were functioning properly so they put on testimony that Mr. Lee’s brakes were working and he said he was braking. If that was true he would have stopped.” Hilliard says, that would explain why there were no skid marks at the scene. A technical witness who inspected the car back in April testified the tail lights showed the brakes were being applied at the time of the crash. “Everybody, even the state’s experts agree that light, when you look at it today right now, shows that the light was on at the time of impact,” said Hilliard.
On August 5, 2010, in a highly-anticipated decision by a Ramsey County, Minnesota Judge, Koua Fong Lee was granted a retrial and released from prison!!
Following a four-day hearing, Judge Joanne Smith ruled Thursday afternoon there was enough evidence to grant a new trial to Lee, who had been serving an eight-year sentence. She ordered him freed pending trial.
The Ramsey County prosecutor's office then announced less than an hour later that it would not be refiling charges against Lee.
LEE IS FREE
