A suspect in the 2002 stabbing death of a 22-year-old Babylon man was extradited from South Korea and arraigned on murder charges in Queens Friday, officials said.
Ho “Alex” Shin, 43, was held without bail following his arraignment on two counts of second-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and numerous assault and weapons charges stemming from a January 2002 altercation in a Flushing apartment, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Shin is accused of stabbing and killing Hyun Dae Kim, as well as stabbing another man after a night of drinking, according to police.
In a statement, Katz said that Shin fled the U.S. almost immediately after the stabbings in an attempt to allude capture. Federal officials eventually tracked Shin to South Korea, where he had fled after a short stay in Boston. He was arrested Dec. 8 by South Korean authorities and extradited Friday.
According to Katz’s office, at about 4:30 on the morning of Jan. 6, 2002, Kim, Shin and one other man went to the apartment of a female friend after a night out. After a short while, Shin left the apartment and came back with a 16-year-old boy, who wasn’t named but was identified as a co-defendant, and began stabbing Kim multiple times over a perceived insult which had taken place earlier in the evening, the district attorney’s office said.
When the victim’s friend, 22-year-old Hyun Suk Yu, tried to intervene, Shin also stabbed him, Katz said in the statement. Yu survived the attack.
Officials said that Kim died in hospital and that Shin told friends he had stabbed someone and had to leave the country.
A defense attorney for Shin was not immediately available for comment on Friday. Queens State Supreme Court Justice Jessica Earle-Gargan ordered Shin to be held without bail and ordered that he return to court of February 17.
Shin faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted of all the charges, the prosecutor’s office said.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.