"After 16 Years, I Chose to Forgive My Stepmom Who Killed My Dad and Claimed It Was a Botched Robbery"

STEPPING onto the dock in Antigua under the beaming Christmas Eve sunshine, Daniella Chin braced herself.

She and her fiancé were on an idyllic Caribbean cruise, and while most guests were sipping piña coladas on the beach and swimming in the sea, Daneilla was there for a very different reason – to confront the woman who killed her father. Here, she reveals why she did it – and why she chose to forgive her.

Daniella Chin with her father, Raymond Chin, before his death Credit: Daniella Chin / SWNS Raymond Chin, pictured, was shot 13 times by his ex-partner Credit: Daniella Chin / SWNS Daniella Chin, pictured, came face-to-face with her father’s killer 20 years after his death Credit: SWNS

Daneilla was just 13 in October 2009, when her stepmother, Jay Marie Chin, shot her father 13 times in cold blood and claimed it was a robbery gone wrong.

Jay and Daniella’s dad, Raymond Chin, had divorced in July of the same year, but Jay was reluctant to accept the end of the relationship.

And when Raymond moved on and started a new relationship with another woman, Jay shot him in the hand, stomach, and chest at the store they owned together.

She then called 911 to say “someone had just shot her husband” and alleged the store had been robbed.

Speaking to The Sun, Daniella, a physio and part-time travel agent, from , , says: “She has maintained her innocence to this day.

“It was a robbery despite multiple witnesses not seeing anyone run out of the store.

“The fact that she’s still saying she didn’t do it after all these years and is lying almost 17 years later is crazy. ”

Jay told cops she was in the bathroom during the attack and saw a man in a hoodie running from the store before finding Raymond lying on the floor in a pool of blood.

But witnesses said they didn’t see anyone other than Jay leave the store after gunfire erupted.

Cops found no fingerprints, no sign of a struggle, and the murder weapon, a .40 caliber pistol, was never found.

And Raymond still had cash in his pockets, despite Jay saying he had been robbed.

Jay was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in February 2012. Her sentence was later reduced to 25 years in April 2017 after an appeal.

Daniella’s father, Raymond, met Jay in 2001 when they were both living in Miami. They married in 2004.

In 2002, Jay opened her store, selling small household items, which she continued to run after the couple divorced in 2009.

According to court records, the pair had “an amicable relationship” despite Raymond moving on with another woman.

But in November 2009, Raymond was shot dead in Jay’s store.

An autopsy revealed the gun was just 6 inches away from Raymond when it was fired – and the murder was so violent that cops were forced to dig bullets out of the floor, showing that Jay continued to shoot bullets at him after he died.

When quizzed by cops, Jay’s story differed time and time again, and she was unable to give a firm version of events.

She didn’t care about me or like me and I was always in the way of her and her marriage to my father

Daniella Chin

Daniella, who was at a friend’s house that day, says she felt “instant regret” as she hadn’t seen her father, who lived abroad, for three months before his death.

But last year, she decided to confront her stepmother to understand what had happened.

“Three years ago, I was honestly checking to see if she had died in jail,” she tells the Sun.

“I checked online, and I couldn’t believe it. In 2022 or 2023, they had reduced her sentence.”

Daniella, pictured with her father as a chid, had not seen her father for three months when she learned of his death Credit: Daniella Chin / SWNS Daniella went to Antigua with her fiancé, pictured together, to visit her stepmum in jail Credit: SWNS

On Christmas Eve last year, Daniella travelled to Antigua with fiancé Mario Spencer, 33, to confront Jay in person.

“I had a free cruise to claim through the travel agency I work for,” she says.

“Initially, I had given up ever seeing Jay, but I kept looking. I was looking through the cruises and saw that one of the stops was Antigua.

“I thought, ‘I have eight hours to get it done, hopefully I can get it done’”.

On the day, they called a taxi from the dock to Her Majesty’s Prison 1735 in St John’s, Antigua.

With no appointment, they were initially turned away by officers.

But eventually they had a change of heart.

‘I saw her in prison and felt sorry for her’

Daniella says: “I showed him my passport. I took off my glasses, and he said, ‘Let her in’.

“I went into the jail, and nobody patted me down. When Jay came in, it was a weird moment because I thought, ‘obviously I remember you, but you’re older now’.

“I don’t know how to describe seeing the person you once knew after all these years.

“I felt sorry for her; the conditions of the jail were not the best. And it hit me that 16 years had passed.”

Daniella didn’t have to tell her stepmum she was Raymond’s daughter, because she is “the double of him”.

“I gave her a hug and said, ‘you know Jay, I forgive you’,”.

The pair had a conversation of 10 minutes – interrupted often by Jay’s correctional officer – before Daniella left.

I’ll never get my dad back, my grandma will never get her son back and my aunt will never get her brother back

Daniella Chin

“She looked at me and said, ‘What’s your name again?’ She knew my name, she was just pretending she didn’t.

“She didn’t care about me or like me, and I was always in the way of her and her marriage to my father. “

Daniella adds that it was while visiting her stepmother that it hit her that this woman “didn’t care for her” but forgave her anyway.

“When you forgive somebody, the forgiving is for you, not for them. And I know that in your walk with Christ, you forgive people because God forgives us every day.

“In my heart, I can forgive pretty much anybody. It was for me, not for her.”

In sentencing remarks, the judge said: “We shall never know exactly why this appalling slaughter occurred.

“However, it appears as though the defendant could not come to terms with the loss of her husband.

“It seems he was moving on and perhaps Ms. Chin simply could not accept that.”

Daniella captured her journey in a self-made documentary, and says she still has “no idea” when Jay’s release date will be.

“We were supposed to be able to give a victim statement at that appeal, but they didn’t inform us of the appeal process.

“We didn’t get that opportunity, none of us did, which is so unfortunate and sad, and at the end of the day, Jay is still alive and breathing in her body.

“I’ll never get my dad back, my grandma will never get her son back and my aunt will never get her brother back.”

The gun used to shoot Raymond. pcitured, was never found Daniella, pictured, said she forgave her father’s killer for ‘myself not for her’ Credit: Daniella Chin / SWNS