A man charged with murder who fled to his parents’ homeland of South Korea and started a new life a decade ago returned to Philadelphia in handcuffs on Tuesday.
David Heyon Nam, 31, arrived at Philadelphia International Airport in the afternoon and was being transferred from FBI custody to Philadelphia police to stand trial for the 1996 home-invasion slaying of a retiree.
In 1998, Nam severed his electronic monitoring bracelet and fled the US just before the trial was about to start, Philadelphia prosecutors say.
Nam, of North Wales, was 19 when he was charged with killing 75-year-old Anthony Schroeder with a shotgun after the victim responded to a break-in with a handgun. Three 14-year-old accomplices who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder named Nam as the shooter.
The testimony of accomplices, now adults, remains the bulk of the prosecution’s case, Assistant District Attorney Mark Gilson said in March, when Nam’s capture was announced.
Nam told police in South Korea after his arrest that he had taught there under several aliases, the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said.
Schroeder, a World War II veteran, was watching TV with the door open on a hot August night when the intruders appeared.
Prosecutors believe Nam panicked and fired the shotgun when he saw that Schroeder was armed.
Schroeder, a bachelor, was retired from a career at an Acme supermarket warehouse. One of 11 children in a poor family, his mother died when he was six. He was one of five brothers to serve in World War II, including one who died in France on Christmas Day.
“He never had a break in his life. He lived through the Depression. He had nothing compared to what this kid [Nam] had,” said niece Jane O’Connor, 78, of Stratford, New Jersey.
Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham said she has little sympathy for Nam, who could face life in prison, even though he is now married with several children. He is eligible for the death penalty, but as part of the extradition agreement, prosecutors agreed not to seek his execution. If convicted of first-degree murder, Nam would be automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Nam surrendered to South Korean authorities in 1999 after he was featured in a South Korean TV show on fugitives. He was released, however, because the US had no formal extradition treaty with South Korea at the time.
That changed in December 1999 after Abraham sought help from Congress, but Nam had by then gone back into hiding.
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