08 December 2005
What was this Man THINKING?
From the Seattle Intelligencer for Wednesday, 7 December 2005:
Apparently, this guy Joice, a former Snohomish County Prosecutor and Jung, prominent in the local Korean community, were hooked up in a contract dispute, and Joice was constantly missing court dates and Joice was "repeated[ly] fail[ing] to meet deadlines and follow court orders".
So the two were supposed to show up in court and discuss it with with the judge; Jung intended to ask the court to find Joice in contempt.
Instead Joice (wearing a false beard) showed up early in a rental car, and, with a 9mm pistol fitted with home-made silencer and a bag to catch the spent brass, opened fire.
Jung suffered severe brain damage, losing the ability to speak.
Meanwhile, Mr Brilliant Committor of the Perfect Crime turns in his rental car, calls a cab from the rental office, apparently planning to go home, get his own car, and appear at the hearing as if unaware that anything has happened.
Except that witnesses gave the cops the full number of the rental, they call the rental offices almost immediately, discovered that the car had been turned by a customer who left on foot. They were able to verify that someone had called a cab from the area of the office, and got there before the cab did...
So he makes his own silencer (not actually hard to do, they work on the same principle as an auto muffler; as a matter of act, you can pick up the parts to make a pretty good one- or two-shot suppressor for 9mm Kurz/.380 pistols in any grocery store for about two bucks...).
He gets a fake beard.
He rigs a plastic bag to catch the spent brass so that the cops can't match it to the gun (God knows why he plans to keep the gun; with as much water as there is in the Seattle area, stripping it and tossing the bits into several different bodies of water sounds good to me).
Rents a car, presumably anonymously.
Shoots the guy several times, at least once in the head.
Screws up over the cab; i'd have walked further away and waited longer, however he doesn't, presumably so he won't be too late for the hearing, which is to be his alibi.
This guy's been watching too much "CSI" and way too many Steven Seagal films.
And his attorney is going to try to convince the jury this wasn't premeditated murder.
That, maybe, he just planned to scare him a little.
As Henry Fonda says in Once Upon A Time in the West, "People scare better when they're dyin'." ¶ 3:29 AM
The evidence against Joice is so overwhelming that even his lawyer told jurors he was the shooter. A witness took down the license plate number of Joice's rental car at the scene, police found a "murder kit" including a 9 mm pistol and a fake beard in his trunk, and surveillance video from a hardware store shows Joice purchasing materials for a homemade silencer.
Joice's attorney, Micheline Murphy, hopes to convice the jury that the shooting was not premeditated attempted murder because Joice didn't intend to kill Jung - a difficult task, considering the lengths Joice went to to plan the attack. Joice is facing a standard sentencing range of 20 to 25 years if convicted.
Apparently, this guy Joice, a former Snohomish County Prosecutor and Jung, prominent in the local Korean community, were hooked up in a contract dispute, and Joice was constantly missing court dates and Joice was "repeated[ly] fail[ing] to meet deadlines and follow court orders".
So the two were supposed to show up in court and discuss it with with the judge; Jung intended to ask the court to find Joice in contempt.
Instead Joice (wearing a false beard) showed up early in a rental car, and, with a 9mm pistol fitted with home-made silencer and a bag to catch the spent brass, opened fire.
Jung suffered severe brain damage, losing the ability to speak.
Meanwhile, Mr Brilliant Committor of the Perfect Crime turns in his rental car, calls a cab from the rental office, apparently planning to go home, get his own car, and appear at the hearing as if unaware that anything has happened.
Except that witnesses gave the cops the full number of the rental, they call the rental offices almost immediately, discovered that the car had been turned by a customer who left on foot. They were able to verify that someone had called a cab from the area of the office, and got there before the cab did...
Officers drove to the pickup address, and found Joice, dressed in a suit as if he were heading to court.
In Joice's Mill Creek home and attached three-car garage, they found crudely made silencers. In the trunk of his own white Lexus, they found the "murder kit." Attached to the pistol was a plastic baggie to catch spent bullet casings.
So he makes his own silencer (not actually hard to do, they work on the same principle as an auto muffler; as a matter of act, you can pick up the parts to make a pretty good one- or two-shot suppressor for 9mm Kurz/.380 pistols in any grocery store for about two bucks...).
He gets a fake beard.
He rigs a plastic bag to catch the spent brass so that the cops can't match it to the gun (God knows why he plans to keep the gun; with as much water as there is in the Seattle area, stripping it and tossing the bits into several different bodies of water sounds good to me).
Rents a car, presumably anonymously.
Shoots the guy several times, at least once in the head.
Screws up over the cab; i'd have walked further away and waited longer, however he doesn't, presumably so he won't be too late for the hearing, which is to be his alibi.
This guy's been watching too much "CSI" and way too many Steven Seagal films.
And his attorney is going to try to convince the jury this wasn't premeditated murder.
That, maybe, he just planned to scare him a little.
As Henry Fonda says in Once Upon A Time in the West, "People scare better when they're dyin'." ¶ 3:29 AM
