'TREACHERY . . .OF THE LOWEST KIND'

WHEN ANGELO "Lo" Shin arrived in the United States from South Korea, he depended not on the kindness of strangers but, rather, on that of his family, the Chaes.

In turn, the Chaes relied on Shin and his family for support when tragedy struck their North Wales home last month - an early-morning robbery that left patriarch Robert Chae dead.

Little did the Chaes suspect that Shin, 25, their nephew and cousin, was harboring a sinister secret, Montgomery County investigators say. Shin, whom the county's District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman labeled "a little bit of a gangster wannabe," was intimately involved with the robbery plot that resulted in the slaying of Robert Chae, a popular Suburban Station business owner.

Shin's price? $2,000, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office.

"Angelo Shin is a traitor of the worst kind," Ferman said yesterday during a press conference in Norristown. "He's a traitor to his family. He's a traitor to his people.

"And his treachery is of the lowest kind that I would say we have ever seen here."

Although Shin was not present in the Chae home during the Jan. 9 robbery, Shin "set the wheels in motion for this crime to take place," Ferman said.

Shin, who has a preliminary hearing Feb. 12 stemming from a November drug arrest, according to city court records, was among four men arrested in connection with the deadly home invasion. The others were:

Robert "Big E" Eatman, 33, of Glendale Street near Luzerne, in Juniata; Julius "Juice" Wise, 33, of Brill Street near Charles, in Wissinoming; and Amatadi "Tadi" Latham, 25, of 8th Street near Cayuga, in Hunting Park.

Two East Frankford men, Joseph "Spade" Page, 22, of Charles Street near Pratt, and Karre Pitts, 18, of Pratt Street near Darrah, were named as suspects and are being sought by police. Ferman warned the public that the two should be considered armed and dangerous.

Montgomery County authorities are investigating a possible seventh suspect, a woman believed to have driven the getaway car.

Five of the suspects were charged with second-degree murder, criminal conspiracy and other crimes. Shin, who cooperated with authorities, was charged with third-degree murder, conspiracy and other crimes, Ferman said.

Calls to Shin were made by trackable cell phones used during the robbery, the complaint said.

Shin's attorney, David Mischak, said that his client was "devastated by the impact these events have had on his entire family."

Shin "never contemplated or even imagined that his uncle or anyone else would be harmed in any way, shape or form," Mischak said.

A chilling moment seemingly underscoring Mischak's point occurred hours after the robbery, when Page paid Shin $2,000 for the information he provided about his uncle, the complaint said.

"Shin asked Page why they had to kill his uncle," the complaint said. "Page just laughed, and then said [Mr. Chae] was 'screaming and kicking so they had to hurt him a little bit.' "

Shin met Page last year, knowing that he had taken part in street and home-invasion robberies, the complaint said. It's unclear whether Shin knew that Page had been charged three times with attempted murder by the city's District Attorney's Office. Those charges were either withdrawn or dismissed, according to court records.

Eventually, in the course of their friendship, Shin told Page that his uncle had $100,000 in a safe at his home, the complaint said.

For more than a month, Shin "gave very detailed information to this crew that was ultimately put together by Mr. Page," Ferman said. The crew consisted of men with criminal histories.

Shin even drove Page to North Wales in December to point out the Chae home, according to the criminal complaint.

He also gave the crew "advice on how they could complete the robbery and then on what should happen after the fact," Ferman said.

Page, Pitts and Latham are believed to have entered the home, Ferman said. Wise and Eatman were part of the clean-up crew, she said.

Around 5 a.m. on Jan. 9, Robert Chae, 58, was in the driveway of his four-bedroom home while his wife, Janice, was inside the garage putting on her shoes, according to the complaint. The couple was preparing to head to Suburban Station, where they owned a beauty-supply business, when three armed men appeared and overcame them.

Two of the killers dragged Robert Chae inside the garage and closed the door. Chae fought back and asked the intruders, "What are you doing?" Janice Chae told investigators.

The two men bound Chae's hands, covered his mouth with duct tape and beat him, leaving him bloodied on the garage floor.

From inside the Chae house, Latham called Eatman, who waited outside in a second vehicle, telling him "Spade went crazy, he kept hitting and hitting the dude [Chae]," according to the complaint.

The other man bound Janice Chae's mouth and hands with duct tape, demanding that she give them all their money. When Janice Chae opened the safe, the men took between $15,000 and $20,000, according to the complaint.

Afterward, she was forced into the basement, where her adult children, Minna and Richard, were also bound. Janice Chae managed to break free from the duct tape and escape to a neighbor's house where she called 9-1-1, but it was too late for her husband, who had died of asphyxiation, Ferman said.

Page later called Shin to say that he and his cohorts the crew were angry because they hadn't gotten as much money as Shin had predicted, the complaint said. *

Staff writers David Gambacorta and Christine Olley contributed to this report.