{"id":358241,"date":"2026-06-12T19:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358241\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T19:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T19:20:20","slug":"suspect-extradited-from-southeast-asia-in-alleged-2016-hit-job-that-killed-wrong-man-in-san-jose-east-bay-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/358241\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspect extradited from Southeast Asia in alleged 2016 hit job that killed wrong man in San Jose \u2013 East Bay Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2014 A South Korean man wanted in two unsolved California murder cases from the past decade \u2014 one of them being an allegedly botched murder-for-hire plot that killed the wrong man in San Jose in 2016 \u2014 is now in a South Bay jail to face prosecution after was captured and extradited from Southeast Asia, authorities said.<\/p>\n

A joint news release Friday from police and prosecutors in Santa Clara and Orange counties, along with federal law enforcement, announced that 31-year-old Myung Jin Kim arrived in the United States earlier this week after being arrested in Laos late last month.<\/p>\n

After being processed in Orange County, he was then transported Wednesday to jail custody in Santa Clara County, where he will face prosecution in the 2016 killing of 26-year-old Justin Tran<\/a> in the Berryessa neighborhood in San Jose. Once his South Bay case is adjudicated, authorities said he will then be brought to Orange County to face charges for a 2018 fatal shooting in Westminster.<\/p>\n

SJPD Chief Paul Joseph commended his detectives\u2019 persistence with the case over the past decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how much time passes or how far someone runs, accountability can still find them,\u201d Joseph said in a statement. \u201cOur homicide detectives never gave up on this case, and their persistence, combined with extraordinary support from our law enforcement partners, brought this suspect back to San Jose to face justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen lauded the \u201call-star team of agencies\u201d that \u201cworked closely together to make sure a multiple murder suspect faces justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tran was shot and killed<\/a> while driving his car in the 1700 block of Cape Aston Court the night of June 27, 2016. An ensuing SJPD investigation developed suspicions that Kim had hired a hitman to ambush and kill a man, and that Tran was the victim of mistaken identity. At least one suspect waited for Tran to come to a stop before getting out of a vehicle and opening fire.<\/p>\n

After the San Jose shooting, which authorities called \u201ca targeted killing believe to have been orchestrated by suspect Myung Jin Kim,\u201d he was also allegedly involved in a Sept. 5, 2018 shooting that killed his friend, 26-year-old Christopher Kim after a reported argument over money in CVS parking lot in the Orange County city of Westminster.<\/p>\n

According to police, Myung Jin Kim was out on bail on drug-dealing charges when he shot the victim in front of the man\u2019s girlfriend, and an arrest warrant was issued for him two months later.<\/p>\n

In March 2020, San Jose police announced that they arrested three people in connection with Tran\u2019s death. They also secured an arrest warrant for Myung Jin Kim accusing him of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder. One of the three prior arrestees, Ruben Larios Lopez, has since been incarcerated in state prison, and until now Kim eluded capture.<\/p>\n

This past December, the investigation \u2014 which by that point included San Jose, Westminster and Anaheim police as well as the district attorney\u2019s offices in Santa Clara and Orange counties \u2014 determined that Myung Jin Kim was living in Laos. They coordinated with an array of agencies including the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection to locate and arrest him.<\/p>\n

Authorities said the extradition from Laos marked its first fugitive transfer to the United States. Among a series of statements in Friday\u2019s news release lauding Myung Jin Kim\u2019s capture was a remark from Patrick Grandy, assistant director in charge of the FBI Los Angeles field office.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Kim\u2019s cowardly acts of violence finally caught up with him, despite being halfway across the globe,\u201d Grandy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 A South Korean man wanted in two unsolved California murder cases from the past decade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[237,145845,7359,7083,40553,145846,611,236,88,90,89,198,5569],"class_list":["post-358241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-arrest","tag-contract-killing","tag-district-attorney","tag-extradition","tag-murder-for-hire","tag-myung-jin-kim","tag-orange-county","tag-police","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-sjpd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}