20-year term imposed in killing of father

The Baltimore Sun

A 22-year-old Ellicott City man was sentenced yesterday to 30 years in prison in the stabbing death of his father during a December 2005 argument at their townhouse.

Howard County Circuit Court Judge Louis A. Becker III suspended 10 years of that sentence and ordered that Jason Chen be considered for placement at Patuxent Institution, a prison that focuses on mental health treatment.

"I apologize for the pain I've caused everybody," Chen said. "I do need as much help as I can get."

Chen pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in September. According to a statement of facts in the case, Chen stabbed his father, Yun Sen Chen, with a steak knife more than 20 times and then assaulted his mother, cutting her cheek before regaining control of his rage.

Chen and his mother, Lili, then concocted a story that Yun had attacked his wife with a knife and that the son killed his father in her defense. She later recanted her statements after she became fearful of her son, who was confined at home awaiting trial.

Lili Chen told police that she lied because "she did not want to lose a son in addition to a husband," according to court documents.

In reality, prosecutors said, she had walked inside the house and had heard her son and husband arguing upstairs. After the quarreling ceased, she walked upstairs and came upon the grisly scene.

Prosecutor David Lank characterized Cho's actions as "completely fracturing the family." But defense attorney Joseph Murtha described a home that had been in turmoil.

Jason Chen's parents worked around-the-clock in restaurants, leaving their son to watch his younger sister. Yun Chen verbally abused Jason and his wife and intermittently abandoned the family to pursue extramarital affairs, according to statements from a family friend and members of the Chen family.

Becker concluded that although he believed Jason Chen's rage was "unique" to an abusive father-son relationship, he had to balance that with the circumstances of the "horrendous stabbing" and the deception of authorities.

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