Co-worker gets life in prison for campus killing of retired Cal State Fullerton administrator

A Huntington Beach man pleaded guilty Wednesday to special circumstances murder and was immediately sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the killing of his co-worker, a retired Cal State Fullerton administrator who was found dead in a vehicle on the campus.

Chuyen Vo agreed to a plea deal requiring he admit to stabbing 57-year-old Steven Shek Keung Chan to death after lying in wait in a campus lot at College Place and Langsdorf Drive on the morning of Aug. 19, 2019. He also admitted to to embezzling from the college over a nearly two-year period.

In return, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a second special circumstances enhancement alleging that Vo killed Chan for financial gain. Dismissing that allegation had no impact on Vo’s sentence, since he still received life behind bars without the possibility of parole, but it meant that Vo did not acknowledge that the killing was directly tied to the embezzlement.

Vo’s decision to accept a plea deal prior to trial meant that the current prosecutor on the case, Deputy District Attorney Jeff Moore, did not have to outline a motive or full narrative of the crime to jurors. But a different prosecutor during a 2021 preliminary hearing offered the theory that Vo had killed Chan to prevent Chan from exposing Vo’s embezzlement.

During often emotional comments to the court, Chan’s wife, Margaret, and his two sons, Matthew and Jonathan, described Chan as a devoted husband and father who was dedicated to his children’s future, as well as a quiet, patient, hard-working family man who others relied on for sage advice.

“My dad was ripped away from us in the most brutal way possible,” Matthew Chan said.

The sons told Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson that they have struggled not having their father with them to see the academic milestones he had pushed and helped them to achieve. The widow told the judge that her heart “was shattered into pieces” by her husband’s killing, adding that “a part of me died with him that day.”

“I can declare on Steve’s behalf that the villain did not win,” the wife said about Vo’s sentencing.

Vo opted not to speak before the court, beyond acknowledging to Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson that he was agreeing to a deal he knew would mean he will never be released from prison. But Vo’s attorney, Ed Welbourn, said Vo decided to take responsibility to avoid putting both Chan’s family and his family through the emotional toll of a jury trial.

“He is a man of faith and a man of family and he understands the pain he caused everyone,” Welbourn said.

Vo reportedly waited for Chan to arrive in the parking lot, then stabbed him to death. A construction worker attempted to intervene, at which point Vo ran off, his escape and his vehicle captured on security cameras. Vo left behind a backpack filled with zip ties, a knife, disguises and a crude incendiary device comprised of a bottle filled with flammable liquid with matches attached. There was also a note that included an apparent “to do list” — including “cuff hand, get phone and wallet, mask on, drive to Marriott, check area and burn” — that Vo apparently hand-wrote.

The note was written on a form tied to a business in the same building where Vo ran a tax business, according to previous testimony, and police were able to tie the vehicle seen leaving the scene of the killing to Vo. During a police interview, Vo apparently eventually admitted to being involved in the killing, telling the detectives at one point that he had lived his life as a good Christian, but that something inside of him had just snapped, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.