Killer of Shop-N-Save store owner gets 40 years

Joshua Bond had been 18 just a few months before he walked into the Shop-N-Save with a grudge and a gun, executing Shop-N-Save store owner Gene Kim with a single bullet nearly 2 years ago.

An hour earlier, Gene Kim with a pointed a knife confronted them over the beers Bond had tried to shoplift . Bond promised he’d be back. When Bond returned, Kim was passing the time like he often did sitting at the counter, reading his Bible just before shooting him.

Gene Kim's family moved to the United States from Korea in 1979 primarily to see his children get a better life and education. His family moved to Nashville just three years before Kim’s death and opened the convenience store in Bordeaux.

He likes to pull pranks ideas and funny tees. He was proud of her and her brother and encouraged them to study hard, Yena Kim remembered.

Yena Kim and her family wanted Bond, now 20, to go away for a very long time.

“I believe in God, and I believe he will take care of it much better than any justice system that exists now today, He sacrificed a lot, he and my mother both did, Pretty much everything he did was for me and my brother.” said Yena Kim.

Bond, who had a long juvenile record according to court testimony, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder Friday in Davidson County Criminal Court in exchange for the 40-year sentence for killing store owner Gene Kim but the victim’s daughter is not sure that’s justice.

Though it’s not the life sentence Yena Kim would have liked to see, her family didn’t think they could withstand the trial scheduled to begin on Monday. Her mother couldn’t come to the hearing, she said, because she’s still traumatized from seeing the surveillance video of her husband being shot.

Now that the case is finished, the family plans to move to California. And Yena Kim will continue her studies at Vanderbilt. The 22-year-old plans to major in public policy.

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