Crime & Safety

Jury Gets Case in Slaying of One-Time Maxim Magazine Model

Prosecutors allege Kelly Soo Park used her bare hands to strangle an aspiring model in a Santa Monica apartment.

By Terri Vermeulen Keith
City News Service

A prosecutor told jurors Wednesday that a businesswoman used her bare hands to strangle an aspiring model and actress and left a trail of DNA evidence in the 21-year-old victim's apartment, while the woman's attorney countered that his client had been wrongly accused of a killing committed by someone else.

Kelly Soo Park, 47, is charged with murder in the March 15, 2008, slaying of Juliana Redding, who was found dead in her apartment in the 1500 block of Centinela Avenue in Santa Monica after her mother called police to inform them that her 21-year-old daughter -- who was featured in a photo layout in Maxim magazine -- had failed to show up for a photo shoot.

Jurors got the case against Park late Wednesday and are due back in court Thursday morning to resume their deliberations.

In her closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Stacy Okun-Wiese told the six-man, six-woman jury that the "evidence is overwhelming with the DNA.''
   
DNA matching Park's DNA profile was recovered from the crime scene, including the victim's neck, tank top, cellular phone, front interior door and a knob on the stove, which had been turned on in an apparent but unsuccessful attempt to cause an explosion, the prosecutor told jurors.

"The evidence is she was there on the night of the murder,'' Okun-Wiese told the Los Angeles Superior Court panel. "He (the defense attorney) wants you to come to an unreasonable conclusion about how the defendant's DNA got to that location."

In his closing argument, defense attorney George W. Buehler said the case "rests entirely on DNA evidence.''

Park's lawyer said testimony during the nearly weeklong trial suggested that Redding was "spring cleaning," and noted that an interior decorator testified that she had met Redding in the kitchen at the home of a doctor Redding had dated and also remembered meeting Park at the same home.

"Could she (Redding) have brought with her from the (doctor's) house to her apartment a towel, an orange plate that had been touched by Ms. Park when she was in that house?'' Buehler asked jurors, suggesting that the items could later have been touched by the person who killed Redding.

"There are ways that DNA could have gotten there ... It doesn't tell you how it got there, when it got there," Buehler said, saying that "the transfer of DNA is an important issue to think about in this case."

He said the prosecution had not proven its case against his client, whom he called a "successful businesswoman."

"Mrs. Park did not commit that horrible murder," Buehler said.

The defense attorney had earlier called Redding's injuries "horrible," while noting that "the question is who inflicted them."

He told jurors that it "took a lot of strength from somebody to overpower her and arguing that Park's size was "not enough.''

In her closing argument, the prosecutor told jurors that Park -- at the time she was booked -- was 5'10'' and weighed 150 pounds while the victim was 5'7'' and 110 pounds when she died.

"The defendant had 40 pounds on Juliana and three inches,'' Okun-Wiese said.

"Quite frankly, the evidence in this case proves that she committed that murder," the prosecutor said.

The deputy district attorney told jurors that Park or her company had received more than $1 million in an 18-month period from a company belonging to Dr. Munir Uwaydah, who had earlier been romantically linked to Redding and who had been involved in business negotiations with Redding's father, Greg. Redding was killed five days after her father pulled out of a potential deal, according to Okun-Wiese.

Uwaydah has not been charged. He left the country and is believed to be living in Lebanon.

Outside the jury's presence, the prosecutor unsuccessfully asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy to remand Park, who is married to a retired law enforcement officer and is free on bail, citing concerns that she was "going to flee."

The judge, however, warned Park that she would be ordered to be taken into custody if she is late to court.


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