California man charged with murdering his mother dies of COVID-19 while awaiting trial
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes is facing a court order to release half of the county jail population amid an outbreak of the coronavirus.
A 37-year-old man, incarcerated in the Orange County jail system and awaiting trial on charges of killing his mother and wounding her boyfriend in 2017, died Thursday of medical complications after testing positive last month for COVID-19, officials said.
Ah Le Fang was accused of murder and attempted murder in the Aug. 15, 2017 attack in Fullerton. He pleaded not guilty in 2018 and was awaiting a jury trial scheduled for July, according to court records.
Fang tested positive for COVID-19 in December and was hospitalized on Jan. 6., the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. He died at the Intake Release Center in Santa Ana. He is the second person incarcerated in Orange County jails to have died of COVID-19.
Fang’s death comes amid legal scrutiny over how Orange County’s jail system has responded to the pandemic. In December, a Superior Court judge ordered Sheriff Don Barnes to release half of its jail population after the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit accusing Barnes of not taking enough precautions to shield medically vulnerable inmates amid an outbreak of the coronavirus.
The ACLU has called Barnes’ plan to address COVID-19 in the jails “woefully inadequate.”
Barnes appealed the court order, saying it would force the release of dangerous suspects, but was denied in an appeals court on Wednesday, upholding the mandate to release more than 1,000 inmates.
As of Thursday, 2,270 Orange County Jail inmates have tested positive for COVID-19, the Sheriff’s Department said. Sixty-one people incarcerated in county jails are currently battling the disease.
On the day of the crime, Fang’s mother called Fullerton police to report she was being attacked, police said. Officers found the victim outside her apartment complex at 134 S. Pritchard Ave., suffering from a stab wound to her abdomen. Police also found her boyfriend, who sustained a stab wound to an arm.
The woman and her companion were taken to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Fang lived with his victims and his adult sister, police said. Fang got into an argument with his sibling and then went to his bedroom, police said.
When his mother tried to talk to him through the door he refused to come out initially, but later when he finally opened his door he emerged with a knife in hand and attacked his mother and her boyfriend before running away, police said.
Fang had a history of mental illness and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and other disorders, officials said.
Fang’s death comes just more than a month after 68-year-old Eddie Lee Anderson of River Ridge, Louisiana, became the first inmate to succumb to COVID-19 while in Orange County custody.
City News Service contributed to this report