SEATTLE – An attorney mortally wounded by a rival more than a year ago died Saturday of his injuries.
The death of Kevin Jung, 45, of Bellevue was confirmed by officer Michael Chiu, a spokesman for the Bellevue Police Department. Jung died at a north Seattle nursing home where he was moved about a year ago, Chiu said.
In a news release, family members said he died peacefully “of complications from his injuries.”
Jung was shot in the head Nov. 3, 2004. As he crouched by his car holding a napkin against his head wound, a police officer who had rushed to help asked if he knew anyone who would want to hurt him.
“Nobody,” Jung replied.
It was the last word he spoke. The wound caused severe brain damage. Jung’s condition deteriorated, and he spent the remainder of his life in a vegetative state.
Just over a week before Jung’s death, on Feb. 3, his assailant was sentenced to more than 30 years in prison. William R. Joice, a former Snohomish County prosecutor, was convicted late last year of attempted first-degree murder. King County Superior Court Judge Julie Specter imposed a sentence near the top of the standard range for first-degree murder.
Specter shuddered as she described the months Joice spent devising “a chilling and ruthless plan” to kill Jung and delay a civil case in which they represented opposing sides.
At trial, Joice testified that inexperience caused him to fall behind in the case, and that alcohol and depression led him to plot the shooting.
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