A San Gabriel Valley man was found guilty of murder by an Alhambra court Wednesday for beating his two nephews to death during a late-night rampage that began when he attacked and hospitalized his wife in 2016.
Deyun Shi, 52, was convicted of two counts of murder with special circumstances for using a deadly weapon in the deaths of Anthony Lin, 15, and William Lin, 16. He was also convicted of felony wounding to his then-wife, Yujin “Amy” Lin.
But in a strange twist, relatives allege that Shi's wife may have been instigating her husband to act violently for her own financial gain.
Meanwhile, Shi and his legal team were back in court Thursday trying to establish an insanity defense.
A call to Shi's defense team was not immediately returned.
The facts and timeline of events that took place on January 21, 2016 and into the early hours of the following morning were not in doubt.
Shi learned that Lin was filing for divorce that afternoon, according to court documents.
The wealthy importer and businessman left a Pasadena courtroom where the terms of a restraining order issued by his mother-in-law against him were being discussed. Shortly thereafter, he initiated wire transfers totaling just under $450,000 to people in his Chinese hometown.
Later that night, Shi assaulted his wife at the family home in La Cañada Flintridge.
Shi hit her with a metal wood splitting tool while she was sitting next to her 8-year-old son, fracturing her nose and cutting her face.
Shi's teenage son finally snatched the gun from his father's hand shortly before midnight.
When Shi left the house, Lin called his brother, David W. Lin, and sister-in-law Vicki Huang, according to court documents. David Lin and Huang met Lin at the hospital and left their two children alone at home.
Shi then drove to his brother-in-law and sister-in-law's Arcadia home. There, she savagely beat Anthony Lin to death with a pair of 2-foot-long bolt cutters, prosecutors alleged. William Lin, 16, was awake and tried to fight off Shi before he was beaten to death with a lead pipe, prosecutors allege.
“Detectives found the bloody bolt cutters wrapped in a towel in [Shi’s] car, with DNA from Anthony and William,” said Deputy District. Lawyer. MacKenzie Teymouri said in court last month. “They gave him a parking ticket while he was inside killing the kids.”
Shi's lawyers have maintained that their client suffered from schizoaffective disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder caused by the divorce proceedings.
“It is not a question of whether our client committed those acts; he did it,” defense attorney Vicki Podberesky told the jury on February 29. “This case is about mental health.”
After the murders, Shi packed a travel bag that included six foreign coins and IDs from three countries. He took a Cathay Pacific Airways flight to Hong Kong and paid for a seat upgrade in cash.
He was arrested by Hong Kong police and extradited to California only after prosecutors assured Chinese officials that they would not seek the death penalty.
“Mr. Shi was acting under active mental illness,” Podberesky said in court. “He was not in the state of mind necessary to have committed the murders charged in this case.”
Prosecutors spent much of the case documenting Shi's violent and angry outbursts toward his wife that escalated in 2015, according to his now ex-wife's court testimony.
In December 2015, Shi nearly strangled Lin to death in early December, according to testimony. That month, she also tried to smother her with a pillow before she fought back.
On December 30, Shi and David Lin fought when Shi drove to Lin's mother's house and tried to forcibly grab his wife and take her home.
David Lin called 911, but then declined to press charges.
David Lin, however, encouraged his sister and mother to file a restraining order against Shi, according to court documents.
Phone records presented in court showed Shi did several Internet searches about California divorce law, Chinese extradition policies and the circumstances under which the killers received light prison sentences.
Prosecutors believe Shi murdered David Lin and Huang's children out of revenge.
In a twist, the couple filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Shi and Yujin Lin.
David Lin and Huang said in court documents that they believed Yujin Lin did not want to divide her family assets with Shi after the divorce.
They allege in the lawsuit that Yujin Lin concocted a plan to enrage her husband so much that he would act violently and eventually be imprisoned. With her husband in prison, the lawsuit claims, Yujin Lin could control marital assets in the United States and China.
The end result of the plan, the lawsuit alleges, was the death of both children.
The wrongful death trial was put on hold until the criminal case is completed and is expected to resume on April 22.
