People v. Ngo CA2/5

BACKGROUND

In April 2014, Wa Hing Chan noticed two charges to his Citibank checking account that he did not authorize, one from the Southern California Gas Company and the other from the Walnut Valley Water District. Chan reported the charges to the police. Detective Bing Han of the Monterey Park Police Department investigated the unauthorized charges. He learned that the service address associated with both charges was a residence in West Covina where defendant’s girlfriend was living; he also discovered that both payments had been made using her mobile phone number. Detective Han visited the West Covina residence and spoke to defendant’s girlfriend. Han asked her to call defendant, which she did, and Han spoke to defendant over the phone. Admissions made by defendant during the phone conversation with Detective Han were the heart of the prosecution’s case. Han testified that defendant admitted he obtained the account information used to make the two payments to the utility companies. Defendant told Han that a man named “Ben” he met at the Commerce Casino gave defendant a check and told him that he “could make payments using the information on the check” to satisfy a $300 debt…