Man found guilty of killing girlfriend

BURBANK — A 48-year-old Glendale man was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder for stabbing his girlfriend to death.

The sanity phase of the trial also began Monday to determine whether Soo Duk Kim was sane when he killed Susan Kim, 52, on Dec. 16, 2007.

Susan Kim was found dead from multiple wounds to her upper torso in her Raymond Avenue home. Immediately after her death, Soo Duk Kim fled and hid in a Koreatown motel, where police arrested him.

During the trial, Soo Duk Kim’s attorney, James Bisnow, told jurors that his client had a hallucination, which was the result of being a “schizoaffective disorder bipolar-type,” before killing Susan Kim.

Bisnow argued that his client was “in a psychotic frenzy,” and that he was “in the throes of this episode.”

A psychologist also testified that Soo Duk Kim had a mental disorder. He tried committing suicide after the stabbing, and then again in jail, his attorney said.

Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Carolina Lugo contended that Soo Duk Kim admitted to police that he had killed Susan Kim.

FOR THE RECORD: This corrects an earlier version that gave Susan Kim’s age as 45.