Stanford University student Daniel Jung pled not guilty to counts of murder, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and aggravated vehicular homicide in a case in which he allegedly stole a family car and ran over and killed his father, Yong H. Jung, 68, in Westlake, Ohio, and injured his mother, 61-year-old Jemma Jung.
Jemma Jung told police that her 22-year-old son had been suspended from Stanford. Jung was last enrolled at Stanford in December and he was studying physics. Jung had been a Florence Moore West resident.
Jung’s sister, Carol Jung Rivera, told the police of a conversation that occurred a week before the alleged murder, in which her brother talked to her about killing her and her parents and using $166,000 from insurance to pay his way through Stanford University, said detective James Janis at a municipal court hearing held Monday.
Retelling the story of the murder in court, Janis said that Daniel Jung became upset because his parents would not let him take the family’s Nissan Maxima to a store to buy orange juice because his mother needed the car to drive to work. Daniel wouldn’t get out of the back seat of the car.
When his mother got out of the car, Daniel Jung climbed over the seat and got behind the wheel. He then reversed the car, hitting his mother with the open driver’s door. His dad ran toward the car, grabbed the door and tried to reach into the car. Daniel Jung shifted into drive and veered left. The car crushed Yong Jung’s left leg and body. Daniel Jung then took off with the car.
His father, a chiropractor, died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen Sunday, July 11, when the incident took place. Jemma Jung, 61, was treated for minor injuries including a broken wrist.
Daniel Jung turned himself in Tuesday at a homeless shelter in Toledo, Ohio, after police issued a warrant for his arrest. After his surrender, Janis said that Jung told police that he thought he’d only broken his dad’s legs. But he also said he hated his father for putting him through a lifetime of mental and physical abuse, according to Janis.
Jung’s lawyer, Kevin Cafferkey, told the judge that Jung had not intended to kill Yong H. Jung. Cafferkey said Jung feared his father, who was skilled in martial arts and had hit his son in the past.
“He was looking to escape,” Cafferkey said.
The judge forwarded the case to a Cuyahoga County grand jury and denied a request to reduce Jung’s $2 million bond.
“I don’t think he’s presented himself as anything other than an unpredictable individual,” the judge said.
Daniel Jung has had a history of run-ins with the law, including alleged charges of a hit-and-run in 2002, which were later dropped in Rocky River Municipal Court. Jung was also in a federal court because he tried to take a stun gun past a security checkpoint at an airport.
A court official wrote that Jung’s driving history and the Rocky River charges suggested, “anger management problems and trouble controlling his impulses,” according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The official also wrote that Jung’s mother said that her son was spoiled and undeveloped socially. Daniel Jung told the court official that he had a 2.7-grade point average at Stanford but that he knew he could do better, as stated by The Plain Dealer.