Man Testifies on Desire to Rid Wife of Demons

With tears in his eyes, a Korean Pentecostal missionary recalled his horror upon discovering that a healing rite meant to exorcise demons had left his wife unconscious and barely breathing.

He had meant only to help expel a powerful demon named Legion who the couple believed had occupied her body for 27 years, testified Jae-Whoa Chung, a 50-year-old Korean Methodist missionary.

He and his wife, Kyung-Ja Chung, 53, had spent nearly 20 years ministering to the poor in Bangladesh when she died July 4 after an exorcism in Century City.

Chung testified it had never occurred to him that, by laying on hands during a religious ritual known as ansu prayer, he and two other men could kill her. But an autopsy showed Kyung-Ja Chung had died of blunt-force trauma, which included deep bruising, internal injuries and 16 broken ribs.

Chung and the alleged exorcist, Sung Soo Choi, 47, are on trial before Superior Court Judge James A. Albracht. Both are charged with second-degree murder. Deputy Dist. Atty. Hank M. Goldberg alleges the missionaries should have known that poking, prodding and stomping on the woman for hours could result in her death.

Defense attorneys for the two men, however, argue that everyone involved, including the dead woman, believed in demons and that the prayer ritual would drive them out. Citing deeply held religious beliefs shared by the defendants and the victim, the defense contends the men wanted to cure her and therefore lacked any intent to kill.

According to testimony, Chung and his wife both worried that she might be possessed by a demon. Choi, another Korean missionary based in China, confirmed their fears after checking her out at the home of a church deaconess in Koreatown.

Choi claimed to have driven demons from others in China, and agreed to perform the ritual, Chung said. He began by pushing against the woman’s thighs and abdomen, first with his hands and then with a metal spoon.

During the ritual, Chung and Choi took turns chanting the name of Jesus in her ear, ordering the devils to leave, and pushing against her body to force the spirits up and out through her mouth.

Chung testified that inside a church member’s condominium in Century City, he and two other men stood on his wife when the demon refused to leave her. But, as he heard his wife’s breathing becoming raspy and labored, Chung said he pushed Choi off her and demanded that they stop.

Chung gathered his wife in his arms, he said, demonstrating from the witness stand in Malibu Superior Court.

“I kept calling her name,” Chung said, wiping tears from his eyes as friends and relatives, including his 18-year-old daughter, wept softly in the spectators’ seats.

“She did not respond in a normal way,” he recalled, his words translated by a court interpreter, “so I started to breathe into her mouth.”

He added, “I lifted her up, closer, moved her closer upwards and I saw her chest. It was sunken. I cried and yelled out, ‘Her chest is sunken!’ ”

Defense attorney Robert Sheahen cited nearly a dozen Biblical passages in which Jesus and his disciples are described casting out demons, asking if Chung had read them. Each time, Chung responded that he was familiar with the passages, and believed them.

The lawyer’s questions about Chung’s religious beliefs and the defendant’s single-word answers rang like a litany in the hushed courtroom.

Sheahen: “Prior to July 1 of last year, did you believe in demons?”

Chung: “Yes.”

Q: Did you, based on your reading of the Bible, believe that a woman could be possessed by Satan?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you believe, based on your reading of the Bible, that a demon could cause someone to foam at the mouth and convulse?

A: Yes, I believe that, according to the Bible.

Q: Did you believe that a demon could hurt someone and make them appear as though they were dead?

A: Yes . . .

Q: And did you believe that it was the work of God to cast out demons?

A: Yes.

Q: And did you believe that it was appropriate, sir, as a man of God, to cast out demons in the name of Jesus Christ?

A: Yes.

In earlier testimony, Han Chung, the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, described her parents’ relationship as loving. Her father, she said, rarely showed anger. Her mother, she added, was more emotional, strong-willed and prone to mood swings.

She recalled advice her mother had given her to avoid anger and depression because those emotions make a person susceptible to demonic possession. She also testified she often had seen her mother heal the sick in Bangladesh by laying on hands and praying for them.

Her father was concerned about her mother’s health last July, she added. “I know he would never intentionally kill her,” she said.