W***n 发帖数: 11530 | 1 Life sentence in Chinese students' slayings
Associated Press
By LINDA DEUTSCH 2 hours ago
FILE - An April 13, 2012, file combo made from undated file photos provided
by the Los Angeles Police Department shows shooting victims Ming Qu, left,
and Ying Wu, two University of Southern California students from China. The
23-year-old engineering students were shot on April 11, 2012 while sitting
in a parked car in a neighborhood near the University of Southern California
campus. Javier Bolden, 22, was sentenced to two life terms in prison
without possibility of parole for the killings Monday, Nov. 17, 2014.(AP
Photo/Los Angeles Police Department, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A man convicted of killing two Chinese graduate students
was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to multiple life terms in prison by a
judge who denounced him for showing no remorse and smiling while a grief-
stricken victim's father spoke in court.
Javier Bolden made no comment during a lengthy hearing during which the
mother of one victim sobbed and the father of another called him "human
trash" and "a monster."
The killings drew international interest and fueled concerns in China about
the safety of students abroad. Bolden, 22, was found guilty last month of
shooting Ming Qu and Ying Wu as they sat in a double-parked car about a mile
from the University of Southern California campus, where both were graduate
students. His sentence includes two consecutive terms without possibility
of parole.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus said the killings had put a stain on the
reputation of the university and on the city of Los Angeles.
"Nothing will erase the pain you have caused," he told Bolden. "This is
truly one of the saddest cases I have presided over."
Wan Zhi Qu, the father of Ming Qu, said, "Our two outstanding children are
gone, but the monsters who took their lives are still alive."
A co-defendant, Bryan Barnes, who shot into the locked car where the
students sat, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of first-degree
murder and was also //// sentenced to life without parole in a plea deal to
avoid the death penalty. ////
Authorities said Bolden told a cellmate that he shot the engineering
students. The cellmate was a police informant and secretly recorded Bolden
discussing how he and his friend had planned to steal the couple's BMW.
Bolden also was convicted of attempted murder and assault with a firearm in
earlier shootings that wounded two men and a woman.
"You have committed heinous crimes against our families and the judgment you
have received is not fair," said Qu, suggesting the two convicted killers
should have received death.
He asked that the men be required to apologize to the families because, he
said, until then their dead children could not rest in peace.
USC's urban campus is within a mile of gang-plagued neighborhoods with
historically high crime rates.
Since the 2012 killings the Los Angeles police department has assigned about
30 more officers to the university community.
The judge paid tribute to the two 23-year-old graduate students, who were in
love and planning to be married.
"You killed their dreams," he said, and also noted that he caused unending
grief for his own family. Bolden's mother was in court for the sentencing
but rushed out afterward, making no comment.
Marcus held up a newspaper picture of Bolden smiling at his conviction. "I
even caught you smiling during the (father's) statement today. Mr. Bolden,
you just don't get it. How can you be gleeful about the grief you caused?"
He noted that in a confession to a jailhouse informant, Bolden was cavalier
in his attitude and said of the killings, "It was boom boom, and that was it
."
He said Bolden sounded as if he was playing a video game.
Fears about the safety of foreign students arose again this summer when four
teens were charged with murder in the beating death of a USC graduate
student from China as he walked to his off-campus apartment.
Parents of the slain students have filed a lawsuit accusing USC of
misrepresenting security at the campus, which has a large population of
international students. | W***n 发帖数: 11530 | 2 The perpetrators deserved death sentences
don't like plea deal |
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