Man charged with killing nephews is declared mentally incompetent

Deyun Shi — who is suspected of attacking his estranged wife last year before killing their two nephews in Arcadia and attempting to flee to China to avoid extradition — has been declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, his attorney said.

Defense attorney Vicki Podberesky appeared on Shi’s behalf in Los Angeles County Superior Court last week and informed Judge Robin Miller Sloan that her client would be unable to participate in criminal proceedings after being declared unfit to stand trial by the county’s Mental Health Court.

Shi, who is being detained in county jail, has been ordered to be transported sometime in February to Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino, Podberesky said.

In May, Shi pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of corporeal injury on a spouse. His next medical review is scheduled for April 11.

The mental health court “determined he is currently suffering from mental illness and is unable to stand trial,” Podberesky said Friday. “Until he becomes mentally competent, by virtue of being stabilized by medication, or whatever it takes, there’s not much we can do in the court.”

According to court documents obtained last year by the Los Angeles Times, Shi’s wife, Yujing Lin, had filed a temporary restraining order against him and was seeking a divorce. He had moved out of the family home in La Cañada Flintridge, but returned the night of Jan. 21, 2016, reportedly threatening Lin with a wood-splitting tool similar to an ax, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said.

While Lin’s sister and brother-in-law were visiting her in the hospital, authorities said, Shi went to their Arcadia home and killed his two nephews, William Lin, 16, and Anthony Lin, 15, who both died of blunt-force trauma to their upper torsos.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 22, Shi booked a flight to China but was detained in Hong Kong by FBI agents and sheriff’s detectives, who after extradition proceedings there returned with him to Los Angeles in April.

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Cardine writes for Times Community News