Authorities charged a Southern California man with killing his business partner in lieu of paying a $1 million buyout fee, according to news reports.
The Orange County D.A.’s office charged Edward Younghoon Shin, 33, of Irvine, Calif. with murder on Monday after being picked up the day before attempting to board a plane to Canada. Following a six-hour interview, Shin admitted to killing Christopher Ryan Smith, 32, of Laguna Beach, according to the Orange County Register.
Prosecutors say Shin murdered Smith in the offices of their advertising agency and reportedly covered his tracks by taking over Smith’s email account and responding to relatives’ worried inquiries posing as his partner.
“It wasn’t the typical email his son would send,” said Lt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Department. “It was different words, short, strange.”
Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department announced the arrest of Shin on Monday morning, alleging he killed Smith instead of paying $1 million to buy him out. The two men had been co-owners of an advertising agency, 800Xchange, for two years but began to have a falling out in 2010, said Assistant Sheriff Mark Billings.
Smith wanted to leave 800Xchange and a financial settlement of $1 million was reached, Billings said. But in June 2010, investigators believe Shin instead killed Smith in the offices of their San Juan Capistrano office.
After Smith’s father reported him missing last April, Laguna Beach police opened an investigation and searched the business offices of the two men and found traces of blood in the area, authorities said.
Through DNA testing, authorities were able to match the blood to Smith’s DNA. Investigators said Shin went through extensive measures to try to hide the blood in the business, including cleaning it thoroughly and repainting the walls. Shin of Irvine was taken into custody Sunday morning at Los Angeles International Airport as he was boarding a plane headed to Canada.
Shin, who is expected to be arraigned today, was charged with one felony count of “special circumstances murder for financial gain” and, if convicted, could face up to a life sentence in prison without parole, according to the Orange County D.A.’s office.
Prior to forming the business partnership, police said, Shin was convicted in Riverside County of embezzlement and was forced to pay restitution and serve three years of probation.
Police said they have not located Smith’s body.
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