LA triple-murder suspect who shot dead his ex-girlfriend, her new boyfriend and her employer is tried and convicted in China a decade later
By Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail
May 6, 2018
A Los Angeles triple-murder suspect was tried and convicted in his native China.
Tai Zhi Cui, fled to his hometown of Shenyang after shooting dead a restaurant co-owner, one of the restaurant's employees and the employee's boyfriend in October 2006.
After years of the Los Angeles Police Department begging China to help cooperate, Cui was arrested and given a trial by Chinese judges, reported the Los Angeles Times.
t could open the doors for convictions in other countries that don't have an extradition treaty with the US.
On the day of the murders, Cui had argued with his ex-girlfriend Kyung Hee Kang and her new boyfriend Seong Ung Kim, although it is unclear over what.
Hours later, Cui walked into Cinyuya Restaurant in Koreatown, where Kang worked, and shot her, Kim and one of the restaurant's owners, Jae Woong Cho, dead.
The LA Times reported that police found the gun used to commit the murder in Cui's apartment but the then-55-year-old had fled to Mexico.
After no leads for two years, the LAPD received a call from a businessman in Koreatown who had heard about the murders.
He had been in China - specifically in Shenyang, Cui's hometown - and believed Cui was the cab driver who drove him from the airport.
The LAPD, the US Marshals Service and the FBI all reached out to Chinese authorities, asking if they could help verify that Cui was in Shenyang, but received no response.
After years of radio silence, LAPD Lt Walter Teague told the LA Times that he reached out to authorities in China in 2014.
He had ties to the country due to his studies in Beijing in the 1980s and where he met his wife.
It worked this time and Teague scheduled meetings in Beijing along with LAPD Det Greg Stearns, and an LA prosecutor.
They presented the evidence they had gathered against Cui including the gun collected from his apartment still spattered with the blood of one of the victims.
Cui was arrested and the LAPD sent the gun and other forensic evidence to China. In interrogations with Chinese police, Cui admitted to the murders before denying he had done it and claiming others had pulled the trigger.
In October 2017, Chinese authorities gave the investigating team in Los Angeles short notice that Cui was going to go on trial in Sheynang, according to the LA Times.
Cui reportedly confessed in a court session that lasted 90 minutes. His attorney, who has not been named, said Cui had been drunk and angry because Kyang allegedly owed him a debt.
Despite a history in China of questionable arrests, forced confessions, and court files not available for public review, LA Country district attorney's office spokesperson Greg Risling said the LA team had exhausted all options.
'Our job is to pursue justice, no matter how much time has passed or how far the distance may be,' Risling told the LA Times. 'Our office exhausted all possible remedies, and we felt this decision would ultimately result in a conviction.'
Despite being found guilty by a panel of three Chinese judges, there has been no word from China yet on his punishment.
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