Christopher Hearn, 22, a Laguna Hills man was convicted Wednesday, September 10, of first-degree murder for the July 2001 stabbing death of his Taiwanese-American neighbor, a slaying a judge also ruled was a premeditated hate crime. The most compelling evidence against him who is deaf was his police interview in which he confessed killing 17-year-old Kenny Chiu and said he disliked Asians, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino said. "I don't think there is any doubt he committed this crime," he said. "The interview was clear, straightforward, matter-of-factly given and the reason for the killing was the (victim's) ethnicity." Hearn, shackled to his chair, stared intently at an interpreter as she relayed Makino's ruling. It is not known whether Hearn, who had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, will serve a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole sought by prosecutors. The second phase of the trial begins Monday, when Makino will hear arguments on whether Hearn was mentally ill when he committed the killing. If Makino finds Hearn was mentally ill, Hearn could be sent to a psychiatric hospital instead of prison. Hearn killed Chiu, a Laguna Hills High School student, the night of July 30, 2001, outside their Laguna Hills homes. The two had been childhood friends and had lived next door to each other for 10 years. In his interview with police, Hearn said he motioned for Chiu to follow him to his back yard, where he took out a knife he had hidden and attacked Chiu. He later said he was "proud I acted like a Marine, like a KKK person." Prosecutors charged Hearn with first-degree murder and special circumstances of lying in wait and killing because of ethnicity. (Source: Rachanee Srisavasdi, The Orange County Register, September 11, 2003, supplied by Guy M. Wong).