Dateline investigates the 2010 murder of 33-year-old Chris Smith, co-founder of the direct-response advertising agency The 800 Exchange in Orange County, California. Months after Smith’s death, Smith’s business partner, Edward Shin, was arrested for Smith’s murder.
Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy said Smith and Shin disagreed about settling expensive law suits brought on by former employers who alleged fraud and embezzlement. Shin said he killed Smith in self-defense during a “fight gone bad” in their office. So he could clean up the blood-soaked carpets, Shin told employees to take the week off and gave them bonuses.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Shin said he stocked up on beef jerky at Costco and planned to drive to Mexico where he would start a new life. To give the impression that Smith was not dead, Shin sent emails from Smith’s email account saying he was traveling the world with a Playboy model.
Shin admitted that it wasn’t the first time he had executed such an ill-conceived scheme. Years earlier he faked his own kidnapping to take ransom money from his father. Shin said he was influenced by pain medication and suffered from a nervous breakdown at the time.
During the murder trial, Shin’s defensive attorney T. Edward Welbourn argued that Shin didn’t plan to murder Smith. “If he had planned to murder Chris, he wouldn’t have done it at the office,” but on December 8, 2018, Shin was convicted of first-degree murder and will be sentenced in February 2019. He faces life in prison. Dateline airs Fridays at 9 pm on NBC.
