At the request of the prosecution, a judge Tuesday dismissed a felony charge of being an accessory after the fact against a 41-year-old Laguna Niguel man who was accused of helping a businessman kill his partner in San Juan Capistrano.
The charge filed in August 2011 against Kenny Roy Kraft was being dropped “in the interest of justice,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy told Orange County Superior Court Judge Gregg Prickett. Murphy said he consulted with the victim’s family before making the decision and they were OK with it.
Kraft testified for the prosecution in the case against Ed Younghoon Shin, 41, who was convicted last December of the financially motivated murder of his 32-year-old business partner, Christopher Ryan Smith, in June 2010.
Shin, who faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, is scheduled to be sentenced May 3.
Kraft helped Shin get rid of Smith’s clothes as Shin concocted a phony story that his business partner quit their business and went on a “surf safari” around the world, according to the prosecution.