A San Gabriel Valley man was found guilty of murder Wednesday in the beating death of two of his nephews during an overnight rampage that began when he attacked his wife and hospitalized her in 2016, an Alhambra court found guilty of murder in the San Gabriel Valley.
Dion Shea, 52, was found guilty of two counts of murder with a special circumstance for use of a deadly weapon in the deaths of 15-year-old Anthony Lane and 16-year-old William Lane. He was also convicted of felony injury to his then-wife, Eugene “Amy” Lane.
But in a strange development, relatives claim that Xi's wife may have been inciting her husband to act violently for her own financial benefit.
On the other hand, Shi and his legal team returned to court on Thursday in an attempt to present an insanity defense.
A call to Xi's defense team was not immediately returned.
The facts and timeline of events that occurred on January 21, 2016, and into the early hours of the following morning were not in dispute.
Shi learned that Lin was filing for divorce that afternoon, according to court documents.
The wealthy importer and businessman left a Pasadena courthouse where the terms of his mother-in-law's restraining order against him were discussed. Soon after, he began bank transfers totaling just under $450,000 to people in his hometown of China.
Later that night, Shea assaulted his wife at the family home in La Cañada Flintridge.
Shi hit her with a metal wood-cutting tool while she was sitting next to their 8-year-old son, breaking her nose and cutting her face.
Xi's teenage son eventually snatched the weapon from his father's hand shortly before midnight.
When Shi left the house, Lin called her brother, David W. Lin, and her sister-in-law, Vicki Huang, according to court documents. David Lin and Huang Lin met at the hospital and left their sons at home alone.
Shi then drove to his brother and sister-in-law's house in Arcadia. There, prosecutors alleged, he brutally beat a sleeping Anthony Lane to death using two-foot-long nail cutters. William Lane, 16, was awake and tried to fend off Shea before he was beaten to death with a lead pipe, prosecutors alleged.
“Investigators found the blood-stained bolt cutters wrapped in a towel [Shi’s] “A car has the DNA of both Anthony and William,” Deputy Director. Atty. Mackenzie Temori said in court last month. “He got a parking ticket while he was inside and killed the kids.”
Shi's lawyers asserted that their client was suffering from schizoaffective disorder and post-traumatic stress caused by the divorce papers.
“This is not about whether our client committed those acts or not, he did,” defense attorney Vicki Podberski told the jury on February 29. “This case is about mental health.”
After the killings, Xi assembled a suitcase containing six foreign currencies and identity cards from three countries. He took a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong and paid for the seat upgrade in cash.
He was arrested by Hong Kong police and extradited to California only after prosecutors assured Chinese officials that they would not seek the death penalty.
“Mr. Shi was acting under active mental illness,” Podbereski said in court. “He did not have the necessary mental state to commit the murders as charged in this case.”
The prosecution spent much of the case documenting Shea's violent outbursts against his wife that escalated in 2015, according to court testimony from his now ex-wife.
In December 2015, Shi nearly strangled Lin to death in early December, according to testimony. That month, he also tried to suffocate her with a pillow before she fought back.
On December 30, Shi and David Lin had an argument when Shi drove his car to Lin's mother's house and forcefully tried to grab his wife and take her home.
David Lane called 911, but later declined to press charges.
However, David Lin encouraged his sister and mother to file a restraining order against Shi, according to court documents.
Phone records submitted to the court showed that Shi conducted several Internet searches regarding California's divorce law, China's extradition policies, and the circumstances under which killers received reduced prison sentences.
Prosecutors believe that Shi killed David Lin and Huang's sons out of revenge.
In a development, the couple has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Shi and Eugene Lin.
David Lin and Huang said in court documents that they believe Eugene Lin does not want to divide her family assets with Xi upon divorce.
They allege in the lawsuit that Eugene Lin concocted a plan to anger her husband to the point that he would act violently and eventually go to prison. With her husband in prison, Eugene Lin can control marital property in the United States and China, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit claims that the end result of the plan was the death of the two sons.
The manslaughter trial has been postponed until the criminal case is complete, and is expected to resume on April 22.
