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A Fountain Valley man who shot a friend over a drug debt during a late-
night boat trip and left him to die in the ocean waters off of Dana Point
was sentenced Monday, Aug. 7, to life in federal prison.

Hoang “Wayne” Xuan Le and co-defendant Sheila Ritze conspired to lure Tri “James” Minh Dao — Le’s friend and drug-trafficking partner — to his death
with promises of a lobster fishing trip on Oct. 14, 2019.

A fisherman discovered Dao’s body two days later, floating in the ocean
water off of Oceanside. It became the rare murder case to be tried in
federal court under maritime law.

Le was convicted in 2021 with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit
murder and use of a firearm during the killing, while Ritze was convicted
in a separate trial of second-degree murder.

Dao’s mother, in a written statement filed with the court, said Le showed
no remorse for the killing.

“You were my son’s friend,” the mother wrote to Le. “You often spent time together with my son’s two young daughters. They called you Uncle and
thought of you as family. How could you so mercilessly and violently
murder him like this?! It was incredibly heartbreaking and agonizing to
sit in court every single day for months and see and hear all the gruesome details of this case.”

Le, during his own testimony, described regularly trafficking marijuana
with Dao from Southern California to Las Vegas. Le said that Dao often
borrowed from him — as well as from other friends, bookies and drug
suppliers — and would gamble the money away.

Exactly how much money Dao owed Le was disputed during the trial. Others testified that Le had told them that Dao owed him $40,000. But Le
testified during the trial that it was much less.

Dao would tell those he owed money that if he died they could collect
money from Dao’s longtime girlfriend thanks to a life insurance police Dao claimed to have taken out. Prosecutors say Le’s belief that he could
collect on that policy was his motive for luring Dao onto the boat and
killing him.

Le — an admitted drug user and dealer — lived with his mother and older
sister in Fountain Valley. He said he become friends with Ritze, a married property manager and avid fisherwoman, after meeting her at a Huntington
Beach bar.

In Le’s telling, once they were out on the ocean Dao asked him for $2,000, pulled a gun out when Le yelled he didn’t have the money, and set off a struggle in which Le grabbed the gun and shot Dao in self-defense. Dao was still alive when he fell into the ocean, but Le said he told Ritze to
leave him behind.

Dao went into the Pacific Ocean around midnight that night, authorities
say.

Le, by his own admission, told several people that he had shot Dao because
Dao owed him money, apparently unaware that some of the people he was
speaking to were federal informants. Le would later argue that he was
simply trying to make himself look tough.

Prosecutors argued the killing was planned ahead of time. Ritze’s mother- in-law testified that during a trip to Las Vegas Le made comments about planning to, in his word, “off” Dao over a large debt by luring him out to
sea on Ritze’s boat under the guise of a fishing trip.

Ritze allegedly also told co-workers, in a recorded conversation, that she
had a friend who killed people, adding that she was making a “hit list”
and “I’m gonna take ’em on my boat; they go on the boat but they are not
gonna come back.”

Ritze was sentenced earlier this year to more than 21 years in federal
prison.

https://www.ocregister.com/2023/08/07/oc-man-gets-life-in-prison-for-late- night-killing-during-ocean-trip-off-dana-point/

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