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Pipe-bomb murder `accomplice' put on trial in California

A man accused in a bizarre murder plot involving a bomb planted inside a toy robot dog went on trial, but the central figure in the case -- reportedly driven by a desire for revenge over a broken marriage -- remained at large.

David Lin, of Milpitas, California, sat quietly in a federal courtroom on Monday as attorneys delivered opening arguments, with prosecutors accusing him of helping to kill his friend's brother-in-law.

Authorities said Patrick Hsu, 18, a freshman at the University of California, Santa Barbara, returned to his family's San Jose home for a weekend visit in February 2001 to find a package containing a toy robot dog that had been mailed to him a few weeks earlier.

When he put batteries in the toy, a pipe bomb hidden inside detonated and killed him.

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Federal prosecutors allege the killing was part of an elaborate scheme by Anthony Chang, the abusive, estranged husband of Hsu's older sister, to fulfill his earlier threats that he would kill members of her family if she left him.

Chang, however, fled his home in Las Vegas and remains a fugitive.

Chang has been featured on the TV show America's Most Wanted.

Meanwhile, his alleged co-conspirator, Lin, faces felony charges that could send him to prison for life without any chance of parole.

The trial, being held before US District Judge Ronald Whyte, is expected to last at least three weeks.

Prosecutors say that Lin mailed the lethal package and knew what was going on.

The engineer faces one count each of using an explosive device to commit a felony, using an explosive device causing death and conspiracy.

Some of the evidence that prosecutors said they planned to present included a chain of phone calls between the two friends and a restaurant receipt with the victim's name and address written on the back, dated on the same day Chang was sentenced to three years' probation for issuing violent threats against his estranged wife.

"David Lin knowingly cooperated in the plan to kill Patrick Hsu," Assistant US Attorney Gary Fry told jurors in his opening statement.

The defense said that Lin was duped by Chang into mailing the package and said he was a peaceful man who had wrongfully trusted a manipulative friend.

Lin was simply doing a favor for Chang when he mailed the package, assistant federal public defender Daniel Blank said in his opening statement.

Lin did not know anything about the package's contents or its purpose, Blank said.

"David Lin is an innocent man and wrongfully accused," he said.
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