How police ID’d a Durham Chinese restaurant owner’s accused killers despite lies

After Shirley Chan finally got her handgun to work, she shot at the masked men trying to rob her and her husband, Hong Zheng, in front of their Hope Valley Farms North home.

The men retreated to a white SUV, which she and other neighbors saw fleeing from the home as the 42-year-old Zheng sat in the couple’s minivan, shot multiple times. He would be pronounced dead at the scene.

That white SUV was damaged by the gunfire and became a key piece of evidence in the federal case against Maurice Owen Wiley, Jr., 31, who is on trial on charges related to the fatal attempted robbery on April 15, 2018.

In court and in related documents, prosecutors have said Wiley rented the car, drove it, and tried to get it fixed and cleaned after the attempted robbery.

Wiley’s attorney has said the defense team doesn’t dispute the tragic attempted robbery, but that Wiley was involved.

Chan and Zheng had pulled into their driveway on Carlton Crossing Drive around 10:20 p.m., returning from their restaurant China Wok on South Roxboro Road during a heavy downpour.

Robbers who had been hiding started shooting, according to Chan and their two children’s testimony.

After multiple robberies and break ins, the family had come up with a system: Chan’s son would hand her a gun when they returned home nightly, and their daughter would look out from a second-story window.

After the son handed Chan the gun, she fell and it jammed as some of the robbers reached the front door. But when she started shooting, they fled, Chan testified.

Zheng’s death stunned the Triangle’s Asian community and highlighted the risks Asian business owners say they routinely face.

Charges

In the month after the killing, Durham police arrested Wiley and four others.

Hykeem Deshun Cox, 24, Darryl Bradford, 21, Semaj Maleek Bradley, Charles Winfor Daniels and Wiley, all of Durham, were initially charged with first-degree murder and related charges.

A juvenile whose name wasn’t released to the public was also involved, police have said.

In August 2019, Wiley and the four others were indicted in federal court, and Durham prosecutors said they would dismiss the local charges as the case moved to federal court.

Wiley is charged with conspiring and attempting to commit the robbery by threat or force and conspiring to possess a firearm while committing a violent crime. Those charges are punishable by up to 20 years. Wiley also faces a charge of possessing a firearm as a felon, punishable for up to 10 years.

The four other defendants have pleaded guilty to some of the charges through plea deals, but haven’t been sentenced yet. Cox and Daniels are scheduled to testify in Wiley’s trial.

The car rental

Through a friend, Wiley rented the white SUV from Avis, in a strip shopping center by Northgate Mall.

Wiley and others used that and another rental car to case the couple’s restaurant and their home, according to court documents and statements in court.

After the attempted robbery, Wiley called the woman who had rented the car for him and said it had been damaged.

“All he said was he was somewhere and somebody was shooting,” the woman testified Tuesday.

Court documents indicated the woman rented cars for Wiley at least three times, including on April 13, 2018. On that day she rented a red Ford Explorer, but Wiley returned the Explorer the next day for a 2017 white Lincoln MKX, according to Avis employees’ testimony.

Surveillance video shown in court included videos showing a red Explorer sitting in the Durham strip mall outside China Wok around the time the restaurant closed on April 13, 2018. A white Lincoln pulled into the same parking spot two nights later, the night of the attempted robbery and killing.

According to court documents, the white car pulled into the parking spot at 10:06 p.m. and left about a minute later. The attempted robbery unfolded about 10 minutes later, at Zheng’s home, a short drive from the restaurant.

After the attempted robbery, Wiley called the woman and said she needed to report the damage to police to get it fixed. Surveillance video shows a white Lincoln SUV being driven in Chapel Tower apartment complex, where the woman and Wiley’s girlfriend lived in separate apartments, around 12:15 a.m. after the shooting, according to court testimony.

The morning after the shooting, the woman called and told police the car had been shot at while sitting on Wiggins Street overnight. Body camera footage from an officer who came to her apartment on April 16, 2018, shows the white SUV with a bullet hole in the left passenger door and a shattered window.

When police went to her workplace for another interview, however, she changed her story after they shared more information about the shooting they were investigating.

While the detective was speaking to her, Wiley contacted her. Wiley told a police detective then that he was driving the car and had got it repaired, and then hung up, according to court documents.

Another shifting story

Investigators also interviewed Shahab Hassan, the Avis employee who had rented the car to the woman and Wiley.

Initially, Hassan claimed he didn’t know Wiley, according to court documents. In a follow-up interview, Hassan changed his story after officials said they had evidence showing he had exchanged phone calls and texts with Wiley, the documents state.

Hussan testified Tuesday that he lied because he was scared.

“I was petrified,” he said.

Hassan knew Wiley as a frequent customer, he said. Initially Wiley rented the cars himself, but then he started having friends rent them.

Hassan said Wiley contacted him and told him about the damage to the car. Hassan said he told Wiley to bring the car in so they could report it and get it repaired.

Wiley, however, took the Lincoln to Auto Glass Now on April 16, 2018, to get it repaired, glass shop employees testified.

Wiley returned the car to Avis April 18, 2018, around 6:30 p.m., which was after the business had closed. When Hussan found it the next morning, he called police, who took the vehicle, he said.

In the Lincoln, crime scene investigators found broken glass, damage from a bullet on the inside of a door, and blood in three spots that was matched to Bradley and Bradford’s DNA, according to court documents.

They also pulled data from the Lincoln’s infotainment center, which tracks when doors open, when brakes are applied and where the car traveled.

That data showed the Lincoln was parked outside China Wok from 10:11 to 10:12 p.m. on the night of the shooting. Then it traveled to Chan and Zheng’s house from 10:15 to 10:21 p.m.

Afterward, the Lincoln was driven to Driver Street, where Daniels lives, then to Wiley’s parents’ house, and then to Chapel Tower apartments, where the woman who had rented the car and Wiley’s girlfriend lived.

Testimony is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.