For William Tse, the past four years without his father, Woom Sing Tse, have been marked by “relentless waiting,” for the family and much of the Chicago’s close-knit Chinatown community.
But on Thursday, they only had to wait about an hour before a Cook County jury found Alphonso Joyner guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of the elder Tse, which took place Dec. 7, 2021, in the 200 block of West 23rd Place, not far from his home while he was taking his daily walk to get a newspaper.
“Four years, no sleep,” Tse’s wife, Shin Oh Chow Tse, said through tears while addressing reporters. The couple met in middle school in China and immigrated to the U.S. when their eldest son wasn’t even 2 years old.
Tse’s family thanked the Chinatown community for their support and the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 19.
“This doesn’t bring my dad back, but it gives us a little peace,” said Carina Set, Tse’s daughter. “We know we want our dad to be remembered.”
Tse, who died at 71, was well known around Chinatown as an avid ping-pong player and “epitome” of the American dream, his son William Tse previously told the Chicago Sun-Times. Looking toward the future, William Tse said he’ll keep his dad’s values, teachings and guidance top of mind.
Tse moved to the U.S. from China as a young man with $100 in his pocket and took a “tough love” approach to parenting, instilling a sense of hard work and dedication in his children. He worked as a cook before opening two restaurants in the Chicago suburbs.
“Justice has been served. The real mission now is to honor his life through what we do every day and how he brought us up,” William Tse said.
He had three children and nine grandchildren, whom he taught to be active and enjoy sports, specifically volleyball, basketball and ping-pong, William Tse said.
“Anything that involved a ball, he was there with the kids, with all of us,” he said.
Prosecutors didn’t spend time trying to hammer home a motive, saying they couldn’t comprehend why anyone would carry out a shooting “in cold blood” on a winter afternoon.
“Who would commit such a random, heinous act of violence?” Cook County assistant state’s attorney Kevin Deboni said while addressing the jury. “What would a motive for that be?”
The defense tried to poke holes in the prosecution’s argument by casting doubt on the assertion that the person seen firing shots in several videos was Joyner.
Defense attorney Barry Horewitch said Joyner, who was 23 years old at the time, was “in the wrong place at the wrong time in the wrong car after a horrific murder on the streets of Chicago.”
During testimony and closing arguments, prosecutors laid out the events leading up to the shooting. Tse was going for his usual afternoon walk to pick up a newspaper when a car approached and someone inside fired several shots, paused, then fired several more shots, according to Chicago police and video evidence played at Joyner’s trial.
As Tse moans and falls to the ground, a person prosecutors say is Joyner exited the car and fired another volley of shots.
A heavy silence in the courtroom was punctuated by sniffling and stifled sobs after one video played. Tse’s wife and daughter, utterly distraught, left the room.
Joyner was arrested later that night in the car captured on video. He was also wearing similar clothing and was in possession of a “ghost gun,” without a serial number, prosecutors said.
Police found 20 shell casings at the scene and another six on the windshield of Joyner’s car, Chicago police detective Roger Sandoval testified.
Investigators collected DNA from the gun used in the shooting and determined there were four people’s DNA present. An analysis by Illinois State Police forensic scientist Stephanie Plazibat found “very strong support,” the strongest likelihood possible within the analysis, that Joyner’s DNA was on the gun.
Defense attorneys cross-examined Plazibat, asking if she could definitively say Joyner’s DNA was on the gun. Plazibat responded by saying the goal of the analysis isn’t to attribute the DNA to specific people but rather to test various possibilities.
In closing arguments, assistant state’s attorney James Konstantopoulos urged jurors to keep three things in mind when deciding on a verdict: evidence, law and common sense.
“When you view the evidence … with your common sense, the answer will be clear,” he said. “You can deliver justice for Woom Sing Tse. You can deliver a message to this defendant.”
Horewitch flipped the common sense logic on its head, asking jurors to ask themselves if they could definitively say Joyner was depicted in the video of the crime.
The defense offered the possibility that Joyner’s circumstances — driving the car at the scene, wearing clothes similar to those the suspect was wearing and being in possession of the gun — could have made him appear guilty and argued it couldn’t be proven that he was the shooter.
“Justice isn’t convicting just anyone,” the attorney said. “Justice is holding the right person accountable.”
While the trial is over, the Tse family knows their healing is not. Reaching a verdict was an important step in taking the “weight off our shoulders,” William Tse said, but the murder changed their lives forever.
“I don’t think it will ever heal. The wound is there,” he said.
The sentencing hearing is looming over William Tse’s head, but the verdict has already taken an “elephant” of weight off his shoulders, he told the Sun-Times.
“We’re almost there, just that sentencing hearing we have. After that, I think there should be more of a relief,” he said. “Talking to my family now, everyone is in a better mood, but at the same time we’re still processing it.”
Jimmy Lee, a friend of the family who flew in from Arizona to attend the trial, said the video of the shooting played in court was especially jarring for Shin Oh Chow Tse, whose translation software was glitching so she didn’t fully understand that the video was about to be shown.
“I would not want to be in that place. It was jarring,” he said.
Ald. Nicole Lee (11th), who represents parts of Chinatown, attended closing arguments Thursday. She said she’s been heartened by watching her constituents show up to support the Tse family and the rest of the community, especially seniors, since Tse’s murder.
But she was clear the guilty verdict didn’t wash away their pain.
“I don’t want to say I’m happy. It’s not a happy day,” Lee said. “How do you ever recover from something like this?”