South Coast College is located in Orange, a few miles from the Orange County Courthouse, where some of the highest profile cases in California occur.
South Coast College students have the potential of participating in some of the most interesting trial cases. One of the latest cases that is newsworthy is the case involving the death of Annie Kim Pham. The defendants charged in the case with her murder are Candace Brito, 27, and Vanessa Zavala, 25. In the preceding picture, Judge Thomas M. Goethals listens to opening statements in the trial of Candace Marie Brito and Vanesa Tapia Zavala. Pictured in the right-hand corner is Katy Magner, a student in the Court Reporting Program at South Coast College. Katy is doing her required apprenticehship.
Judge Thomas M. Goethals is only one of the many judges who permit court reporting students to do their apprenticeships in their courtrooms. South Coast College students are also very fortunate in that many of the court reporters who mentor them during their apprenticeships are alumni of South Coast College. Pictured in the left-hand corner of the following picture is Kim Kantor, CSR, who is also a graduate of South Coast College. In this picture, Michael Molfetta, defense attorney for Candace Marie Brito, speaks to the jury in superior court in Santa Ana at the start of the trial of Candace Marie Brito and Vanesa Tapia Zavala, both of Santa Ana.
Each are charged with one felony count of murder and one felony court of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury in the death of Annie Pham outside a restaurant and bar in downtown Santa Ana in January 2014.
