A former cook on a Taiwanese fishing boat was found guilty by a federal court jury yesterday of stabbing to death the vessel's captain and first mate and then taking control of the boat in 2002.

Lei Shi, 24, faces life in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 23 by U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor. In the federal justice system, there is no parole.

After nearly five weeks of testimony, the jury took about two days to find Shi guilty of seizing and exercising control of the vessel and causing the death of two people. He also was found guilty of an act of violence that endangered the safe navigation of the vessel.

Shi, a Chinese national, was was found guilty of the fatal stabbing of Chen Chung-She, the captain of the Full Means No. 2, and first mate Le Da Feng on March 14, 2002, while the vessel was at sea. The captain's body was tossed overboard and the first mate's body was stored in the boat's freezer.

Shi then took control of the boat and ordered its crew to proceed to Shanghai, prosecutors said.

Shi claimed that he killed the two in self-defense. Richard Pafundi, Shi's attorney, argued at trial that the captain subjected Shi and the crew to brutal beatings and Shi lashed back only after being confronted by the captain and first mate, whom Pafundi said was armed with a metal pipe.

Pafundi said Shi did not seize control of the Full Means No. 2, but simply wanted to return to China after more than a year at sea.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Brady said Shi killed the two men out of revenge. Brady said Shi was angered because he was reassigned from his cook's duty to a much harder job on the fishing lines.

"It was a horrendous crime," Brady said after the verdicts. "He picked the date, time and place as to when to kill these people. He chose the dead of night. He chose to creep up from behind and attack from behind. He chose to stab the captain when he was half asleep. This was a premeditated, planned, vicious attack, and I think the jury agreed with that."

Pafundi said he would appeal the verdicts.

"There's a multitude of novel issues for appellate purposes to be determined and reviewed," Pafundi said. "There's jurisdictional issues — whether the case should have been tried in the United States in the first place."

Although the crimes happened in international waters, Brady said, the federal government had jurisdiction because Shi was later found in this country. Two days after the killings, the Full Means No. 2 crew overpowered Shi and locked him in a storage room that was then welded shut.

The crew then voted to head for Hawai'i, and the U.S. Coast Guard met the vessel about 70 miles south of Hilo.

In January 2004, Shi pleaded guilty, but was later allowed to withdraw the plea. Under terms of a plea agreement, Shi was to have faced 25 to 30 years in prison.

At that time, his federal public defender said the plea agreement was in Shi's best interest because he faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted, or deportation and a likely death sentence in China if acquitted.

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.