Kyung Kim cried tears of joy when she heard a jury read its
verdict Monday.
Kyung Kim cried tears of joy when she heard a jury read its verdict Monday.
The jury of eight men and four women found the Gilroy woman not guilty of first-degree murder around noon Monday after deliberating for two days. Kim stood accused of hiring Hollister hit man Gus-tavo Covian to kill her husband of 24 years, Young Kim, whose body has never been found.
Prosecutor Peter Waite had asked jurors to consider a second-degree murder charge if they acquitted Kyung Kim of first-degree, but they acquitted her of the lesser charge as well.
The Santa Clara County women’s jail in Milpitas was expected to release Kim Monday night, according to corrections spokesman Mark Cursi. She has been in custody for three years, since her June 2001 arrest.
“The jury has spoken; that’s our system,” Waite said Monday after speaking with jurors. “They said they had a reasonable doubt. … They felt that it’s possible that she could have merely been a victim of extortion.”
“They felt there were a number of ways to interpret the evidence,” said county Alternate Defender Mary Greenwood, who stood in Monday for David Epps, Kim’s defense lawyer. Epps was unavailable because he had to respond to a “family medical emergency,” Greenwood said.
Over the past two weeks, Waite brought together a web of circumstantial evidence – mostly witness statements and those of Kyung Kim herself in a 2000 police interview – that indicated she arranged for Covian to kill her husband on Nov. 13, 1998 at the couple’s Rancho Hills Drive house.
Epps said Covian robbed Young Kim on his own – perhaps killing him, perhaps letting him escape to Mexico – and then set out to extort $100,000 from Kyung Kim. She told police in the 2000 interview she paid Covian at least $46,000 after her husband disappeared. This was because he threatened to kill her, kill her two children and tell police she hired him to kill her husband if she didn’t pay or reported him to police, she said.
“I thought there was more than enough evidence to convict,” Waite said. “My feeling is (jurors) felt sorry for Mrs. Kim, who cried quite a bit the last several days of the trial.”
Kim released sobs of happiness and thanked the jury after they announced their verdict, according to multiple sources.
“She was very emotional and extremely relieved and very grateful,” Greenwood said.
The jury announced it had reached a verdict just before 11:30 a.m., and by noon it was read, leaving little time for out-of-town parties to be present. Kyung Kim’s daughter, son and sister, of Gilroy – who have been at most of the trial’s proceedings – were absent for the verdict reading.
Kim family members did not comment on the verdict and have declined to do so throughout the trial.
Waite was present for the verdict and gave little visible reaction, according to Deputy Court Clerk Jane Linn.
“I think he was maybe in disbelief,” Linn said.
Waite successfully prosecuted Covian for Young Kim’s murder in February 2003, and Covian is now serving life in prison without parole. Superior Court Judge Robert Ambrose prohibited Waite from using this fact as evidence against Kyung Kim, however.
Waite offered plea bargains to two of Covian’s alleged accomplices: brother Ignacio and ex-wife Maria Zapian. Both were sentenced to prison after pleading to voluntary manslaughter instead of murder this spring.
The Kims’ children testified that their father was hard-working and loving, but he sometimes beat his wife and daughter. Kyung Kim told police in 2000 that her husband often lost his temper, came home drunk and went on gambling trips to Mexico and Reno that lasted up to a week.
Waite claimed Kyung Kim solicited her husband’s murder in a conversation less than a month before he disappeared, at the Gavilan Restaurant the couple owned at 6120 Monterey St. Kyung was angry enough to tell two waitress friends – one of them Zapian – she wished he was dead. Zapian said there were people who could kill Young Kim for between $10,000 and $20,000, Kyung Kim told police in 2000.
Epps claimed there was no evidence Kyung Kim took this as anything but a joke, as she told police.
Peter Crowley can be reached at (408) 847-7109 or or at
