VALLEY MAN CHARGED IN BAY AREA SLAYINGS.

Byline: TONY CASTRO Staff Writer

A Panorama City man could face the death penalty in a trio of killings in San Francisco, where authorities suspect he targeted Asian-Americans in retaliation for having been spurned by an Asian woman.

Joseph James Melcher, 25, has been in jail without bail since Oct. 21, when he was arrested on suspicion of killing an Asian woman in a bar in the city's Japantown district, then gunning down an Asian man outside.

The victims were identified as Song Sun Lee, 34, and Kam Yan Li, 22.

San Francisco police detectives assigned to the case could not be reached Friday. But the San Francisco Chronicle reported that Melcher, who is white, had gone to the bar looking for Jussara Yip, whom he had known at San Francisco City College.

``It wasn't like they were boyfriend and girlfriend,'' San Francisco police Lt. John Murphy told the Chronicle. ``He wanted to be her boyfriend. Her response was, `Get away from me.'''

According to court records, Melcher was ordered to attend counseling in 2003 after he threatened Yip, who subsequently secured a restraining order against him, the newspaper reported.

In the double homicide last month, police say, Melcher opened fire in the bar when he was told Yip wasn't there. Lee was killed and an unidentified bartender was wounded.

Outside the bar, police said, Melcher confronted Li and gunned him down as he walked with his girlfriend in Japantown Plaza.

Police said Melcher was arrested not far from the Japantown shooting scene after a short car chase and that the .45-caliber handgun used to kill Lee and Li was found in his car.

Melcher has been charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances, which would make him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, if convicted.

District Attorney Kamala Harris has said her office has not decided whether it will seek the death penalty, the Chronicle reported.

Melcher also has been charged with murder in the Aug. 27 slaying of Robert Stanford, 21, who was fatally shot in San Francisco. Stanford was Asian-American.

Police said ballistics tests determined that the .45-caliber automatic handgun used in the Lee and Li shootings was the same weapon used to kill Stanford.

Melcher also matched the description of a man seen in a surveillance-camera video firing shots at Stanford as he drove away from his girlfriend's house. A 16-year-old friend of Stanford's was also wounded in the shooting, police said.

Authorities said Melcher was originally from the Bay Area but had been living in Panorama City. Melcher bought the weapon linked to the three shootings from a dealer in West Hollywood on Aug. 22, police said. A search of Melcher's Panorama City apartment earlier this month turned up the makings of what could have been a pipe bomb, including a fuse, police told the Chronicle.

San Francisco police Lt. John Murphy said Melcher did not know any of his victims, and that no motive has been established in the killings.

``There is no way to determine that,'' Murphy said. ``He's not talking.''

But the Chronicle quoted court documents as saying that investigators are looking for evidence that Melcher may have an ``antipathy to Asians.''

tony.castro(at)dailynews.com

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