Nephew charged in Montco killing

When Angelo Shin was new to America, he was taken in by his prosperous uncle Robert Chae, an immigrant himself, whose Center City beauty-supply shop had made him prominent in Philadelphia's Korean business community.

But instead of following his uncle's industrious path, Shin fell in with a bad crowd. The "gangster wannabe" told his friends of Chae's riches, then helped plan a home invasion, authorities said.

In the Jan. 9 robbery, Chae was beaten and suffocated with duct tape in his Montgomery Township home, authorities said.

For his help in planning the crime, Shin was paid $2,000, authorities said.

After weeks of investigation, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said yesterday that Shin, 25, set his uncle up for the brutal attack.

"Angelo Shin is a traitor of the worst kind," Ferman said. "He is a traitor to his family. He is a traitor to his people. And his treachery is of the worst kind that we've seen here."

Ferman said Shin confessed to having told Joseph Page, 23, a friend with a reputation for home-invasion theft, about thousands of dollars that Chae kept in a wall safe.

That led to the early-morning attack in which Chae was killed while his wife and two adult children were held captive.

Shin helped plan the robbery, which Page and others carried out. The men attacked Chae in his garage, began beating him, and eventually wrapped his head with duct tape, authorities said.

Chae was found in the garage, the victim of such a thrashing that authorities initially thought he had been stabbed.

After the attackers escaped, prosecutors allege, Page called Shin to complain about not getting enough money. Their take, Chae's widow said, was $15,000 to $20,000 in cash, along with jewelry and a bank passbook.

Shin and three others - Julius Wise, 32; Robert Eatman, 33; and Amatadi Latham, 25 - were arraigned yesterday on murder charges. Authorities were still searching for Page and accused accomplice Karre Pitts, 18, Ferman said.

All but Shin were charged with second-degree murder, which carries a possible life sentence, as well as with other offenses. Shin was charged with third-degree murder - which carries a maximum penalty of 20 to 40 years in prison - in exchange for confessing how the plot came together, Ferman said.

"He gave us all the information that we needed to get to everybody else," Ferman said.

Investigators had little to work with but descriptions of the assailants from Chae's wife and two children.

Authorities received a tip that Pitts had told an informant about a two-car, seven-person robbery crew. Other information pointed toward three pay-as-you-go cell phones, according to an affidavit. Ferman would not specify how investigators followed a trail of cell calls to Shin's phone.

Ferman said she did not know when Shin emigrated and lived with Chae, who was an uncle by marriage.

Montgomery County detectives questioned Shin last Thursday, and he confessed the plot, the affidavit says. He identified from police pictures Pitts and Page, and said they were at a planning session with him and the other three in Wissinoming.

Except for Shin, the suspects are from Philadelphia. Shin lived in North Wales, 2 1/2 miles from the Chaes' house.

Eatman told detectives that he was a lookout during the robbery, and that Latham had called him from inside the house to say Page "went crazy; he kept hitting and hitting" Chae, the affidavit says.

Hours after the robbery, Page handed Shin $2,000 as a reward, Shin told detectives. When Shin asked why his uncle had been killed, Page said Chae had been "screaming and kicking, so they had to hurt him a little bit," according to the affidavit.

Ferman said Shin was upset over his uncle's death and his arrest. He was held on $1.25 million bail.

"When you engage in conduct like this, that's always a possible consequence," Ferman said.

Latham, Eatman and Wise were held without bail. In addition to Page and Pitts, authorities were seeking a second driver in the attack.