Working to convince jurors that Paul Koh’s death was a suicide, lawyers defending his father from murder charges highlighted alleged strange behavior by the son in the years before his 2009 stabbing death in Northbrook.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, called recollections of Koh’s purported odd conduct into question during the early phases of Hyungseok Koh’s murder trial in Cook County’s Skokie courthouse.
Lawyers have spent much of the first three days of the trial questioning Eunsook Koh, the defendant’s wife and mother of the victim, who spoke through a Korean translator. Judge Garritt Howard halted the trial Friday as the witness hunched over and wept after recounting her son’s death. At points, her husband pulled his glasses from his head and buried his head in his arms at the defense table, apparently weeping.
Prosecutors are trying to convince jurors that Hyungseok Koh flew into a rage after his 22-year-old son returned home late from buying marijuana in April 2009, stabbing his son several times in the chest and head and slitting his throat. Defense attorneys have argued that the son committed suicide and that the father’s videotaped confession to the killing was coerced.
Under questioning by one of her husband’s lawyers, Terri Mascherin, Eunsook Koh detailed alleged odd acts by her son in the last years of his life, when she said she also learned he had used illegal drugs. She testified that her son spoke of hearing voices and needing guns to protect himself, that he said his spirit had left his body and met Jesus, and that he walked to a nearby grocery in the snow wearing no shoes.
“All I wanted and prayed was that (he would) return to his normal life,” she said.
Assistant State’s Attorney Michele Gemskie on Monday asked Eunsook Koh questions that appeared aimed at calling into question how concerned the parents actually were about their son’s mental health. Gemskie also suggested that in earlier statements about her son’s mental condition, the mother did not mention some of the incidents she outlined from the witness stand.
The trial is expected to last several more days.