Oakdale man found guilty of murder

Dao Xiong laid out a meticulous plan to kill Youa Ty Lor and steal his beloved sports car, and didn't accidentally shoot the St. Paul father of four in a panic, a jury concluded on Friday after a nine-day trial.

Xiong, 20, of Oakdale, was found guilty of all three charges he faced by the eight-woman, four-man jury, and will spend the rest of his life in prison. He was convicted of premeditated first-degree murder, second-degree murder with intent and second-degree murder while committing a felony.

Jurors rejected defense arguments that Xiong pulled a .40-caliber handgun only to scare Lor, 33, when the gun slipped and fired. He had duped Lor into taking the Nissan 350Z to a lonely road in Lake Elmo where he shot Lor in a ditch. Lor died Sept. 9 from a single gunshot wound to the abdomen.

That Xiong fired the fatal shot was never at issue, but the case hinged on whether he had planned the murder.

In the end, said F. Clayton Tyler, Xiong's defense attorney, a text message from Xiong to his friend Keng Thao stating, "You wanna kill a guy with me?" two days before Lor was killed likely was a strong swaying factor.

"The fact that he said, 'Wanna kill a guy,' and then the guy died," Tyler said after the trial ended Friday. "That was a very difficult statement to overcome. It was a very, very difficult case. Both families, unfortunately, suffered a great loss."

Washington County Attorney Pete Orput applauded prosecutor John Fristik's handling of the case. "The jury did the right thing," Orput said. "The sad part is, the tragedy isn't over. I mean, we've got a widow and four orphans -- it doesn't bring back Ty.

A statement by Lor's widow, Katie, before sentencing, told the weight of her grief and that of her young children, whose faces were emblazoned on the hood of the stolen car.

"The loss of my husband has changed me as a person," her statement said, read by Fristik. "I feel like the life has been sucked out of me. Each day I force a smile on my face, and have to push myself to be strong for my kids."

Ty Lor, whose parents died when he was young, was raised by grandparents in a refugee camp in Thailand before coming to the United States.

He was determined to give his children a better life, Katie Lor said, and worked hard to give them emotional and financial security -- which is now gone.

"My husband was a good man," she said. "He was the best daddy in the whole world to his four children."

"With all due respect, I do not accept your sentence," he told Washington County District Judge Ellen Maas before the sentence was passed. When he repeated that, Maas responded: "You've stated your piece, now I will state mine."

Maas then sentenced Xiong to the mandatory life prison term for first-degree intentional homicide, with no chance for parole. The sentence is subject to an automatic appeal.