Man Who Killed Stranger During Delusion Pleads Guilty

A Korean immigrant with a history of mental illness pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder for killing a stranger eating breakfast in a McDonald’s restaurant last May under the delusion that the victim was having an affair with his wife.

Roger Pak, 43, entered his plea in San Fernando Superior Court just as prosecutors and his attorney had almost completed jury selection for his trial on charges of first degree murder.

On May 10, Pak killed Edward Capannelli, 60, and told police he thought Capannelli was having an affair with his wife.

Capannelli, who had three grown children and several grandchildren, was dedicated to his wife of 40 years, and had never met Pak nor Pak’s wife, authorities said. There was no evidence that Pak’s wife had had an affair, authorities said.

Over the six years prior to the murder, Pak, who had a string of business failures after arriving in the United States in 1972, was hospitalized repeatedly for mental illness. In February, 1989, he was again released from the hospital, but his wife said that by May 10 he had ceased taking medication prescribed to control his mental problems.

At the McDonald’s that morning, Pak finished a cup of coffee, got a .44-caliber handgun from his car, calmly returned and shot Capannelli in the back of the head without saying a word. Restaurant employees scribbled down his license plate number as he sped away, and Pak confessed to the crime when authorities arrested him at his home later that day.

Deputy Public Defender Nelda K. Barrett said she planned to argue that Pak was mentally unbalanced and should be convicted of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. But she said her client decided to plead guilty because she said the chance of a voluntary manslaughter conviction was slim.