BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
A possible Russian mob hit. The robbery of an innocent man out for a walk. A family fight over money. A dispute with a building manager. A bullet seemingly shot into a crowd at random. Those are some of the facts behind murders in Palo Alto over the last three decades. Here’s a look back at those cases.
June 12, 1997 — Six members of a Samoan gang from East Palo Alto known as the True Blue Crips beat to death NASA engineer Bert Kay, 38, on Gilman Street, across from the parking lot for the Saturday Farmers Market. The six were drunk and they killed Kay in a robbery attempt as he was out for an evening walk. The murder in the normally quiet downtown area outraged residents. The six were convicted and received sentences ranging up to 25-years-to-life. Kay left behind his wife Meg and twin daughters, Nina and Sonia, who were only 2 years old.
March 31, 1996 — Peter E. Wilson, 44, also known as Hamld Einanlou, was arrested and later convicted of murdering his landlady, Hakjoo “Jean” Kim, 59. Kim was found dead of massive head wounds on the basement stairs of her home at 1160 Fulton St. Wilson received a life sentence in prison without the opportunity for parole.
Feb. 24, 1998 — Henry Lee “Skip” Olsen, 54, shot and killed his roommate, John Jurison, 50, in an argument over rent money in their apartment at 314 Sheridan Ave. Jurison’s body decomposed for three days before police discovered the murder. Olsen was sentenced to prison for 40-years-to-life.
Sept. 22, 1998 — Vladimir Pokhilko slit his own throat and somehow held onto the knife to fatally stab his wife Ellen Fedotova and 12-year-old son Peter Pokhilko. Then he supposedly bludgeoned them with two hammers in their south Palo Alto home. Police originally ruled the case a murder-suicide, but rumors have persisted that they were killed by the Russian mob. In fact the Discovery+ network released a documentary in 2022 exploring the possibility of a mob hit.
May 5, 2000 — Music teacher Kristine Fitzhugh was murdered in her home by her husband, Ken Fitzhugh, who was convicted following a high-profile trial and sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison. He claimed she fell down a set of stairs due to unsteady shoes, but police forensics determined she was hit on the head seven times, strangled and then placed at the bottom of the stairs. It came out during the trial that one of Fitzhugh’s sons was fathered by a family friend, and that Fitzhugh was angry Kristine was going to reveal that fact to the son. Fitzhugh was paroled because he had an advanced case of Parkinson’s Disease and died on Oct. 27, 2012 at age 69.
June 10, 2001 — Maria Hsiao, 21, of San Leandro, was shot outside the now-defunct Q Cafe nightclub at 529 Alma St. She was saying goodbye to friends when a shot rang out and she was hit in the head. Death was immediate. The shooter has never been found despite a $100,000 reward.
Jan. 11, 2002 — Ronald Paul McKean, a 49-year-old homeless man, shot and killed by another homeless man, Joe Carney, 40, in a fight over a stick of deodorant at Trinity Lutheran Church, 1295 Middlefield Road. The church was participating in the Hotel de Zink program, which provides shelter for 18 homeless men and women at night. McKean was convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 40-years-to-life in prison.
Sept. 14, 2004 — Sarah Howell, the 2-year-old daughter of Drs. William Howell and Denise Provost, died in their Stanford West home. Claudia Gabrielle Granados, 24, a nanny who commuted to the Howell’s home from Tracy, was convicted by a jury of assaulting a child with force likely to produce great bodily injury resulting in the child’s death. She was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.
July 8, 2005 — Maria Ana Quinones, 22, was arrested in connection with the discovery of her child’s body behind the Days Inn at at 4238 El Camino Real. The body of the decomposed child was found by a construction crew working behind the motel. Quinones worked as a housekeeper at the hotel. She pleaded no contest to a charge of second degree murder and was sentenced to 15-years-to-life in prison.
July 13, 2008 — Philip Lacy, 27, of South San Francisco, was shot and killed in an apparent robbery on the east side of Palo Alto City Hall in the 600 block of Bryant Street, just feet from the police station. Otto Emil Koloto, 23, of Gilroy, was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors said Koloto had ordered Lacy at gunpoint to give him his gold chain, which bore a diamond-encrusted cross. When Lacy refused and instead lunged at him, Koloto shot him in the head, according to prosecutors.
Oct. 15, 2009 — Bulos “Paul” Zumot, then 35, was arrested and convicted in the murder of his girlfriend, Jennifer Schipsi, a 29-year-old real estate agent. She was burned to death in a fire he started in their cottage on Addison Avenue. Zumot was convicted previously of domestic violence and he was returning from a court-ordered anger management class when he set the fatal fire. He’s appealing his conviction.
March 20, 2015 — Marc Miller, a resident of the Alta Torre low-income senior apartment complex at 3895 Fabian Way, took his own life after murdering Vincent Collins, the manager of apartment building. Residents said the dispute likely involved parking.
July 7, 2016 — Jenny Shi, 65, was found stabbed 41 times in her home on the 300 block of Creekside Drive in south Palo Alto. On Oct. 6, 2016, police arrested the victim’s sister-in-law, Jingyan Jin, who later accepted a plea bargain and was freed from jail in 2021. Jin, who was married to Shi’s brother, thought Shi had hid a large amount of money in anticipation of Jin’s divorce from Shi’s brother, James, according to prosecutors. Jin felt she was entitled to some of that money.
June 24, 2019 — Timothy Wood, 63, was stabbed n the chest with a kitchen knife at his home at the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park by Isadore Christopher Diaz. Why Diaz stabbed Wood isn’t known. Diaz was sentenced in May to 30 years to life in prison.
Jan. 21, 2020 — Armando Espinoza, 52, of San Jose, was killed by an unknown shooter before an early-morning shift as a mover that morning. Officers found Espinoza conscious and breathing by his parked car on the 700 block of San Antonio Road, but he died after surgery from wounds to his abdomen and pelvis, the coroner said. No witnesses have come forward, and detectives don’t know why Espinoza was killed, police said.
July 25, 2024 — James Allen Rudolph, 60, was murdered and his body was dumped on the first floor of the city parking garage at 445 Bryant St. Alvaro Javier Lopez, 34, was arrested Aug. 1, 2024. Both the victim and the suspect were homeless, according to police.
I never understood the Jenny Shi sentence. She was stabbed 41 times yet Jingyan Jin was allowed a plea deal of time served of 5 years. Five years for murder?!