Attacker gets life for killing of graduate student from China
Print Edition
A 21-YEAR-OLD man has been sentenced in California to life in prison for the murder of graduate student from China.
Andrew Garcia is the second person to be convicted of the July 2014 killing of Ji Xinran, a 24-year-old electrical engineering student at the University of Southern California.
The murder rattled the university’s Chinese community and prompted the school, in downtown Los Angeles, to increase security.
Ji was beaten by his attackers and hit with a baseball bat and a wrench as he walked home from a study group late on July 24, 2014, authorities said.
He managed to flee and staggered back to his apartment, where he was found dead hours later by a roommate.
Prosecutors said his attackers, who included a teenage girl, targeted him because he was Chinese and they thought he had cash on him.
Several members of Ji’s family, some of whom traveled from China, tearfully read statements during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing at the Los Angeles Superior Court. Garcia showed no emotion.
Ji Songbo, the victim’s father, spoke in Chinese, with his words translated into English for the court.
“We lost the sunshine of our life, he is our only child. The people of our age are planning the weddings for their children, but we will never have the chance to prepare a wedding for our child. For these years, Xinran’s mother can only sleep with sleeping pills.”
The victim’s mother was too distressed to speak in court.
Facing the victim’s relatives, Garcia sat motionless, blankly staring straight ahead.
Du Zhaohui, the victim’s aunt, said: “Xinran came to the US with his dream. No one expected that he would be brutally killed. We are begging you to sentence him with the most severe punishment. I was supposed to hug my excellent nephew here, but now I can only hold his picture.”
Garcia was the second of four defendants to go to trial.
Alejandra Guerrero, who was 16 at the time of the attack, was convicted in October of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. She also faces life behind bars but has not yet been sentenced.
Two more defendants await trial.
After the attack on Ji, prosecutors said, Garcia and the others drove to Dockweiler State Beach and robbed a man and a woman.
Garcia was also convicted of robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.
Ji’s killing took place two years after two other USC students from China were shot dead during a robbery as they sat in a car.
Nearly 5,000 of USC’s international student population of 10,500 are from China, according to the school’s website.
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