Murder of Stuart Tay

The murder of Stuart Anthony Tay occurred in Buena Park, California in Greater Los Angeles on December 31 (New Year's Eve), 1992. The Orange County Register referred to the crime as the "Honor Roll Murder." The victim and most of the perpetrators were Asian American.

The victim, Stuart Tay, was a 17-year-old Chinese American resident of Orange, California and a student at Foothill High School. Five teenagers believed that Tay was planning to betray them in a planned theft of computer equipment, so they arranged to kill him. All of the perpetrators were students at Sunny Hills High School. Most of the perpetrators had planned to attend elite colleges and universities including Ivy League schools.

The perpetrators were 18-year-old Robert Chien-Nan Chan of the Sunny Hills area of Fullerton, California, 16-year-old Kirn Young Kim of the Islands community of Fullerton, 16-year-old Abraham Acosta of Buena Park, 17-year-old Mun Bong Kang of Fullerton, and 17-year-old Charles Bae Choe of Fullerton. All suspects were convicted and/or pleaded guilty.

The film Better Luck Tomorrow was loosely based on this murder.

The prosecutor said that Tay used an alias and presented himself as an older person. He and Chan created a scheme to rob a computer parts dealer in Anaheim, California and then recruited four other persons as part of the plot. In court Chan said that Choe helped recruit the other participants. The prosecutor said that Chan created a plan to kill Tay when he learned that Tay was lying about his name and age. The suspects feared that Tay would betray them. The Tay family had hired a private investigator who said that Chan had attacked Tay partly due to issues over a girl who had refused to date Chan. The police said that this theory is not true. The planned robbery never occurred.

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