California

Men Sentenced in Samurai Sword Slayings That Left 5 Dead

The victims were stabbed with a samurai sword and bludgeoned with a baseball bat in 2008.

A man has been sentenced to life in prison without parole and a second man to 125 years to life for murdering five people with a baseball bat and samurai sword in Quartz Hill in 2008.

Steve Kwon, 45, and Jae Shim, 46, each pleaded guilty in connection with the June 23, 2008 slayings of Shim's ex-wife, Young Park, her two children, her fiancé and a NASA scientist at their California desert home.

The victims were stabbed with a samurai sword and bludgeoned with a baseball bat at the house where Park was living with her cousin.

Prosecutors said Shim was angry that his ex-wife, Park, had become engaged to another man.

Shim admitted killing Park's cousin's husband, Joseph Ciganek, a 60-year-old NASA engineer. He also said he killed Park's fiancé, Si Young Yoon, and dumped his body in Mexico.

Mexican police caught Kwon and Shim at the border, after they had dumped Yoon's body out of their car window.

Sham and Kwon sat motionless in court Friday as the victim's families read impact statements describing how their lives had been shattered by the killings.

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"You serve to die," said Si Young Yoon's sister, Si-Jeong Yoon.

The judge denied Kwon's subsequent request to withdraw his plea.

City News Service and Gordon Tokumatsu contributed to this report.

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