Psychologist: Serrano a ‘low risk’ for future violence

Defense team tries to persuade the jury against imposing the death penalty

Pamplin Media Group, Mar 9, 2010, Updated Mar 9, 2010 (1 Reader comment)

JAIME VALDEZ / Pamplin Media Group

Defense attorneys for convicted killer Ricard Serrano are trying to persuade a jury against imposing the death penalty in the 2006 murders of a Bethany mother and her two young sons.

Convicted killer Ricardo Serrano will not take the witness stand in his defense as a jury decides whether to impose the death penalty for the November 2006 slayings of a Bethany mother and her two young sons.

Speaking through a Spanish interpreter Tuesday afternoon in Washington County Circuit Court, Serrano told Judge Steven Price that he had decided against testifying during the penalty phase of the trial. Serrano also said he would not speak to the court before a sentence was imposed.

Serrano, 34, was convicted Feb. 26 on 10 counts of aggravated murder in the Nov. 2, 2006, close-range shooting deaths of Melody Dang and her sons, Steven and Jimmy. The three were killed during the late evening in their Northwest Telshire Terrace home.

Melody Dang’s domestic partner, Mike Nguyen, discovered the three bodies shortly before 6 a.m. Nov. 3, 2006, when he returned home from his night shift at Nike Inc.

During the past month, prosecutors Robert Bletko and Gina Skinner laid out a case that Serrano killed the three as revenge for Mike Nguyen’s affair with Serrano’s estranged wife, who also worked at Nike.

The trial continues Wednesday morning in Hillsboro, with prosecutors and defense attorneys presenting their closing arguments. The eight-woman, four-man jury will then deliberate on the question of whether Serrano should be given the death penalty for the murders.

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