The price of a night out at one Manhattan nightclub was murder, a jury has found.
The jury took just one day to find Youngmin Kwak, 27, guilty of shooting a restaurant manager dead because he was enraged over his bill. Investigators had charged he would likely have killed more people, but his aim was off because he’d been drinking so heavily.
The shooting took place inside of a late-night spot called the President Club on July 15, 2000.
Kwak had been partying and drinking up a storm with three friends in the basement karaoke club on East 32nd Street, but the mood turned ugly around 4:30 a.m. when the pals got their $980 check.
Kwak, who apparently had drunk an entire bottle of Scotch, started arguing with the waiter about the hefty tab and threatened him before one of his friends used his credit card.
But the Queens man – who cops said had tried to stiff the restaurant before – was still enraged even after his friend paid the tab. Kwak pulled out a 9 mm handgun and started blasting away, firing at least six shots and causing pandemonium inside.
His first target was apparently the waiter, but Kwak missed. He then apparently took aim at a busboy a few feet away but missed him, authorities said.
Then he turned his gun on manager Sang Dal Choi, and shot him three times in the head and neck.
Kwak, a computer animator who lived in Flushing, then fled the scene. Choi was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Police working on the case found out he was planning to go stay with his sister in San Jose, and when he stepped off the plane in California, he was seized by plainclothes detectives and airport police.
The jury convicted him after a three-week trial before Manhattan Supreme Justice Bonnie Wittner.
He could face a sentence of 25 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced on Nov. 17.
His lawyer, Robert Jaffe, refused comment except to say he plans to appeal.