D.A. withdraws charges against suspect in 1998 slaying
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office withdrew all charges Tuesday against the suspect in a 1998 murder and dismemberment at a Chinatown restaurant, because the key witnesses against him have returned to China and were unavailable to testify against him.
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office withdrew all charges Tuesday against the suspect in a 1998 murder and dismemberment at a Chinatown restaurant, because the key witnesses against him have returned to China and were unavailable to testify against him.
Kai Guo Huang, 39, was released from custody after an aborted preliminary hearing in the slaying of Hoi Yang, 27, in the basement of the former Min Du Restaurant in the unit block of North 10th Street.
Assistant District Attorney Bridget Kirn announced the formal withdrawal of charges in a brief appearance before Municipal Court Judge Karen Y. Simmons. Kirn said the key witnesses against Huang - his sister and brother-in-law, according to court documents - had returned to China.
The withdrawal of charges was "without prejudice," which means Huang could be arrested if witnesses become available.
Huang could not be reached for comment, and supporters waiting in the lobby of the Criminal Justice Center declined to comment.
Huang's lawyer, Varghese M. Kurian, said he did not know Huang's plans. "I don't think he's thought that far ahead," he said.
It is unlikely that Huang could return to Canada, where he was arrested in Toronto on a drunken-driving charge in August 2012. Canadian authorities determined that Huang had entered the country sometime after the 1998 slaying by claiming he was a refugee, and using an alias and bogus travel documents.
Huang fought extradition to the United States until the Ontario Court of Appeals gave its approval in April 2015. Huang was returned to the U.S. and was formally charged in Philadelphia in October.
On July 27, 1998, police in Pemberton Township responded to the report of a body in a dumpster and found Yang's headless, partly clothed torso in a plastic bag along with seven $1 bills. Yang's head and a pair of jeans were found in a separate dumpster a short distance away.
Homicide investigators learned that Yang was in the country illegally, had come to Philadelphia from New York, and was living on North Ninth Street in Chinatown. He was last seen alive July 26, 1998, eating dinner at Min Du, which Huang had opened a week earlier.
When investigators searched the restaurant's basement, they found more than 80 blood spatters on the walls and ceiling, and seven bloody butcher knives and a meat cleaver. According to court records, blood and DNA tests proved the basement blood was Yang's.
Huang reportedly disappeared July 30, 1998, after turning over the keys to the restaurant to his newly hired manager.
Canadian court documents involving his extradition said the Philadelphia prosecutor's key evidence against Huang was statements by his sister and brother-in-law, who operated a restaurant in Pemberton Township near where the body parts were found.
Huang's sister and brother-in-law told detectives that Huang admitted killing Yang, whom he called a "troublemaker" who caused a scene in the restaurant and might have tried to extort him.
By the time of Huang's 2012 arrest, the Canadian court documents read, Huang's sister and brother-in-law had recanted their statements and returned to China, where they are beyond extradition to the United States and cannot be compelled to testify.
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