Killer of Chinese students at university in LA faces life in prison
Murder conviction for deaths of Ming Qu and Ying Wu could see Javier Bolden locked up without parole; families of slain pair sue university
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 9:58pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 October, 2014, 9:58pm
Associated Press in Los Angeles
Javier Bolden. Photo: AP
A man who was recorded confessing to the killings of two Chinese graduate students near the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has been convicted of first-degree murder.
Javier Bolden, 22, was found guilty on Monday of shooting Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23, as they sat in a double-parked car near the campus on April 11, 2012.
The killings drew international interest and fuelled concerns in China about the safety of students abroad. The crime spurred the university to provide more protection on campus.
Concerns surfaced again this summer when another Chinese student was killed.
Parents of the students have sued, accusing USC of misrepresenting security at the campus, where nearly 20 per cent of the 38,000 students are from overseas, including 2,500 from China. USC says it has more international students than any other United States university.
The murder charges against Bolden carry special circumstances but prosecutors did not seek the death penalty, so he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on November 17.
Bolden, who was in a white shirt, vest and glasses, showed no emotion. His mother, seated in a front row of the court, doubled over in her seat and sobbed.
He also was convicted of attempted murder and assault with a firearm in separate shootings that occurred months earlier that wounded two men and a woman.
Shooting victims Ming Qu and Ying Wu. Photo: AP
Authorities said Bolden told a cellmate that he shot the Chinese engineering students. The cell-mate was a police informant and secretly recorded Bolden discussing how he and a friend had planned to steal the couple's BMW.
Defence lawyer Andrew Goldman said his client lied to the informant to appear tough.
In February, Bolden's friend, Bryan Barnes, who also shot into the locked car, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.
Fathers of the two victims came from China to speak at Barnes' sentencing, saying their son and daughter were in love and had planned to marry.
Xi Yong, the father of the slain girl Ying Wu, said her killing had "shattered the dream and hope of our entire family into pieces and pushed us into the abyss of endless pain".
This summer four teenagers were charged with murder over the beating to death of a USC graduate student with a baseball bat and wrench as he walked to his off-campus apartment after meeting a study group.
Two of the suspects were juveniles charged as adults in the slaying of Xinran Ji, 24, an engineering student from China.
Ji was able to make his way to his apartment despite being hit in the head with the bat. A roommate discovered him dead hours later.
USC's urban campus is close to gang-plagued neighbourhoods with historically high crime rates.
Since the 2012 killings of the Chinese couple, the university has added 60 security cameras, including some licence-plate readers, for a total of 178 cameras in an area that includes blocks off campus, according to a university public safety chief David Carlisle.
The university also has private security patrolling in the adjacent neighbourhoods.
In addition to the university's own security, Los Angeles police have assigned about 30 more officers to the university community since 2012.
