Ten O'Clock News; Bun Vong Murder

[Reporter] Scott Arsenault came to court from the Middlesex house of correction. He began a six month sentence there May 1st when he and his friend John Febbi were convicted of beating Cambodian refugee Bunyoeun Som last August 5th. Today Arsenault was hoping to escape the much bigger count of manslaughter in the death of this man. Bun Vong died 10 days after being punched by Arsenault during that same August incident. Arsenault testified it was self-defense. The prosecution said the attack was unprovoked. The jury came back in three and a half hours. [Judge] Is the defendant guilty or not guilty? [Jury] Guilty. [Judge] Members of the jury, you will harken to your verdict as ordered by the court. The jurors of the court do say the defendant is guilty. [Reporter] Arsenault's fiancee and relatives were in the courtroom. So too were members of Asians for Justice. The group calls this a case of racial violence and has attacked the DA's office for not filing civil rights charges. The prosecutors were clearly relieved by today's verdict. [Prosecutor] I hope that this conviction of manslaughter in this case not restores, but give faith to the Asian-American community that the system of justice will work,

that it will work fairly. [Reporter] But was the crime racially motivated? [Attorney] I don't have the evidence to say it's a racial incident. I'm not going to speculate as to whether it is or not. Only those two defendants can say what was motivating them to chase these people for 4.8 miles, get out of their car, and attack them. [Reporter] ?Helgrow? says he asked the chief witness over and over again. But Bumyoeun Som couldn't understand what the assailants were saying and thus couldn't tell if they were shouting racial slurs. Defense attorney Ralph Champ says there were no civil rights violations. [Champ] I think this was an incident where the individuals in one car gave a finger to another car just as remarks were made, and it escalated. But there's absolutely no evidence of any racial incident. [Reporter] After the first trial, some Asian Americans reacted angrily. [woman] It makes a statement that violence against Asians is acceptable and need not be punished. That Asian life is cheap. [Reporter] Today Asians for Justice thank Mike ?Pelligrow? for his

work but Elaine Song says she wants a tough sentence. [Song] What the criminal justice system has done here is acknowledge that this was a violent act and that it should be punished. [Reporter] Ralph Champ recalls last August incident a tragedy for both Vong and Arsenault, who has no prior record. He thinks the judge should be lenient. [Champ] Even ?Pelligrow? and the DA had said when he gave his opening and when he talked to the judge on numerous occasions that it was involuntary manslaughter, there was no intent to kill. [Reporter] Champ says he'll file an appeal. Today's conviction comes on the heels of a recent US Civil Rights Commission report that raises concerns about numerous incidents of violence against Asian Americans and especially Southeast Asian refugees. Mike Peligro and Scott Harshbarger say they'll ask for a 12 to 20 year sentence for Arsenault. They say they want to signal Asian-Americans, especially refugees, that they can get justice within the system.

For the 10 O'Clock News I'm David Boeri.