Death Upheld for Killer of 3 at Hospital

A judge on Monday sentenced an Orange County man to death for a hospital shooting rampage that left three people dead in 1999.

Dung D. Trinh, who has repeatedly asked the court for a death sentence, reacted with a smirk and a nod of thanks to Superior Court Judge John Ryan. Then, in a rambling statement, the Vietnamese refugee lashed out against his victims, their families and Americans.

“I don’t have nothing to [feel] shame about,” he said in broken English. “I have nothing to regret.”

His parting shots provided another surreal moment in a case that went to trial three times to determine the punishment, and brought together relatives of the victims so often that they have become a family of their own. They hugged, sobbed and smiled outside the courtroom.

“It’s not over for me,” said Dave Mustaffa, his voice cracking.

“I lost everything. I lost my wife. It’s been really hard. When you live by yourself, it’s really hard.”

Mustaffa, 66, has been living alone since Sept. 14, 1999.

It was on that day that his wife, Marlene, a nurse’s aide, dropped by her office at West Anaheim Medical Center to ask for time off so she and her husband could start looking for a retirement home in Medford, Ore.

It was on that day that Trinh stormed the center with a pair of revolvers, looking to avenge the death of his 72-year-old mother.

She had died at another hospital hours earlier, but had had her hip replaced at the medical center; Trinh blamed West Anaheim staff members for her death.

A videotape shows Trinh calmly firing and reloading his weapons to shoot Mustaffa, 60; maintenance director Ronald Robertson, 50; and pharmacist Vincent Rosetti, 50.

Trinh, 46, was convicted in August of three counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.