Former Pastor Sentenced for Killing Dentist With Ax : Crime: Ex-minister at Torrance church gets 15 years to life. He had pleaded guilty to second-degree murder stemming from alleged love triangle.

A former Torrance minister who killed a dentist with an ax because he believed the man was having an affair with his wife has been sentenced to a 15-years-to-life state prison term after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Samuel Fu-Tzan Chi, 41, the former pastor of the Evangelical Formosan Church, showed no emotion as he was sentenced Friday for the July, 1991 killing of Torrance dentist Shinn-Der Yu, 40, a parishioner and choir leader at Chi’s church. But the slight, bespectacled Chi, who once told a psychiatrist that “an evil spirit” had taken hold of him before the murder, appeared to tremble as a court deputy ordered him to remove his tie and belt and then led him away to begin serving his term. Chi carried a Bible with him.

Chi’s wife Sally, with whom Chi has been living since he was released on bail a year ago, was not in the courtroom during the sentencing. Chi claimed he had evidence that his wife had an affair with Yu, but she has denied the charge.

Before the sentence was imposed, the victim’s younger brother, Shuenn-Der Yu, a resident of Taiwan, told the judge that “Chi was a pastor who was supposed to know God’s law and who was supposed to teach people how to love, how to care for people, and how to respect human life. Instead, Chi treated Shinn-Der with hatred and brutally killed him.”

Chi made no statement in court before sentencing; he also declined to speak to a reporter. But in a “To Whom It May Concern” letter attached to the court file, Chi wrote that he had “asked forgiveness from God” and from the victim’s family, “which was once very close to me like my own family.”

Chi also said in the letter that he had pleaded guilty because he “could not endure the repeated suffering of the Taiwanese community, the church, my family and the victim’s family,” and did not want to subject them to a trial. Chi said he wants to serve as a minister in prison.

Chi’s lawyer, Barry Bernstein, told Judge Jacqueline Connor that Chi regretted the anguish he had caused. Chi pleaded guilty to the reduced murder charge last month in a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Marc Chomel, who prosecuted the case, said Chi will have to serve a minimum of 10 years before being eligible for parole.

“This was not a ‘bargain’ (for Chi) in any sense of the word,” Chomel said.

Chi was arrested for murder on the evening of July 3, 1991, after Torrance police received a 911 call from a man at a pay phone in the 3900 block of Pacific Coast Highway. Police said the man told them, “I kill a man.”

According to court documents, Torrance officers found Chi standing in a parking lot with blood on his shirt. He led them to Yu’s dental office at 3903 Pacific Coast Highway, in the Ocean West Plaza mini-mall, where the officers found Yu lying face down in a pool of blood. An autopsy later revealed that Yu had been struck 21 times with an ax.

Chi said his problems began in March, 1991, when he discovered several alleged “love letters” from Yu to Sally Chi, according to a probation report. Yu, the choir director at the church, was a widower with one teen-age daughter. A graduate of Taiwan National University, Yu had been a dentist in California since 1986. Sally Chi sang in the church choir and taught a Bible class with Yu.

After learning of the alleged affair, the probation report says, Chi stated he “began to have periods of sleepless nights, depression and loss of weight. His behavior became somewhat bizarre in that he began to believe that an evil spirit or demon had settled in him.”

Chi later told police that on May 27, 1991, his 40th birthday, he went to Los Angeles International Airport to pick up his wife, who was returning from a trip to Chicago, and found Yu there with her. Chi said he had repeatedly told Yu to stay away from his wife.

On the afternoon of July 3, Chi told police, he went to Builder’s Emporium at the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Anza Avenue and bought a short-handled ax. He went to his church, then to his home on Wendy Drive in Torrance, he said. At 5:30 p.m. he drove to Yu’s office, carrying the ax in a briefcase. Yu was alone in the office, sitting at the reception counter.

Chi said he and Yu argued, and then a shoving match broke out, according to police reports. During the fight, Chi said, he grabbed the ax from the briefcase and struck Yu on the head several times. Yu fell to the floor, Chi told police, and he struck the dentist at least once more on the back of the head. He said he could not remember how many more times he struck Yu.

Chi said he then went outside and tried to flag down a police car to report the killing, but could not find one. He made the 911 call about 8:20 p.m.