A Brooklyn murder trial involving the boyfriend of an ex-wife was put on hold this morning pending the outcome of a hearing in Pennsylvania to determine whether a witness will be transported to New York to testify.
Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Joseph Burke asked for a time-out in the trial of Xing Chen, who is charged with second-degree murder of the brother-in-law of his ex-wife’s boyfriend, until a Pennsylvania court rules on the transfer request.
Lawyers for Chen didn’t object to the delay but did note that the case has been years in the making and said prosecutors “had three years to locate this witness.”
Judge Guy Mangano of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn said the District Attorney’s office made “ongoing efforts” to arrange for the delivery of the witness, but that “when rubber met the road,” Brooklyn prosecutors “met some resistance.”
“We are not working today,” Judge Mangano told jurors. “Sometimes certain things come up.” When they do, he said,“there are certain procedures I must follow.”
The judge didn’t explain to jurors the nature of the delay. “Don’t speculate as to what it is,” he instructed them, and “don’t hold it against anybody.”
Prosecutors say Chen, 38, hid in an alley on Dec. 13, 2008, before attacking the victim and his ex-wife’s boyfriend when the two men returned home from work.
A medical examiner testifying for the prosecution said the victim was stabbed ten times in the torso, and that his wounds were consistent with a single-edge knife.
About a month before the attack, Chen and his ex-wife reportedly were involved in a public altercation during which Chen is said to have threatened her and her boyfriend.
The case is scheduled to resume Monday morning at 10 a.m.
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