Man convicted for stabbing wife to death inside church

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Main image shows the Chinese Christian Church in San Francisco; Wyn Leung appears in a booking photo, inset on the right

The Chinese Christian Church where Jieyun Zhou was slain on Palm Sunday in 2018; inset: a booking photo of her estranged husband and killer, Wyn Leung. (Google Maps; credit: Henry K. Lee/KTVU)

A California man with a history of domestic violence has been convicted of murdering his wife in a church on Palm Sunday.

Wyn Leung, 47, stabbed Jieyun Zhou, 37, over a dozen times before turning the knife on himself and then crawling back to his wife, knife still in hand, to stab her again. In sum, she was stabbed 20 times.

On Thursday, a jury of Leung’s peers found him guilty of one count each of murder in the first degree, domestic violence, and violating a restraining order causing injury, according to a press release issued by the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office. The murder charge came with a special circumstances allegation — a feature of California law more or less akin to a sentencing enhancement — that he used a weapon during the crime. Jurors endorsed that allegation as well.

The incident occurred just after 1 p.m. inside the Chinese Christian Church, located in the Ingleside Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, on March 25, 2018 — right after most of the parishioners had left following the celebration of the movable feast.

Zhou remained inside, cleaning up.

Leung, known to be abusive, arrived and entered the church at 10 Chester Avenue — in violation of a restraining order issued in his wife’s favor — and asked a 79-year-old assistant to see the pastor. Zhou, in turn, said she did not want to speak to her husband and told church staffers she needed to get out of the building, according to court documents in the case obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.

The killer quickly found his wife in the kitchen. Another employee heard screams and ran in after Leung — finding him with one arm brandishing a knife; the other arm around his wife’s neck. He stabbed Zhou in the chest and back repeatedly and then stabbed himself.

“Defendant and Zhou fell to the ground,” San Francisco County Assistant District Attorney Julia Cervantes wrote in a denial of bail petition. “Defendant got up and crawled to Zhou to stab her again.”

Upon seeing the carnage, the employee ran out of the kitchen to dial 911, prosecutors wrote. The pastor then entered and found the dying woman facedown on the floor. Her husband, at the time, was sitting next to her holding the knife, the pastor told law enforcement.

“If I’m going to jail, I might as well die,” the murderer told the pastor.

Police arrived around 2:10 p.m. to find Leung still in the kitchen, still alive, still wielding what law enforcement described as a “survival looking knife.” The killer allegedly pointed the knife at responding officers and they fired a beanbag round at him. After that, he lost color in his complexion, sat down, and dropped the knife, prosecutors say.

Still, the killer struggled with police when they moved in to try and arrest him, the Chronicle reported. He managed to rip a body-worn camera off one of three officers attempting to subdue him. The since-condemned man was finally taken into custody after police used pepper spray to irritate his mucus membranes and batons to detain him.

First aid was rendered to Zhou while being rushed to San Francisco General Hospital. She succumbed to her wounds an hour later.

Evidence presented during the trial showed Zhou filed for divorce months before the fatal violence. The mother of two was granted preliminary custody of the couple’s children and a family court counselor recommended she receive full physical and legal custody. A family court hearing was scheduled for March 28, 2018.

“I would like to thank the jury for their service in this case and delivering justice to the victim’s family and friends who have patiently waited for years to see justice achieved,” San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement.

Sentencing in the case is currently slated for March 4.