Photo: CRISP COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE / EFE
Robert Aaron Long, the man accused of killing eight people in March in several shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta, Georgia area, was sentenced Tuesday to serve four chains. life, without the possibility of parole, after pleading guilty to four of those crimes.
Cherokee Superior Court Judge Ellen McElyea handed down the sentence hours after Long acknowledged the events that occurred last night 16 of March, in which he went to a massage parlor in that county of the state of Georgia and shot those who were there, killing four people.
Long, from 21 years, he had been formally accused of a score of charges, including several of murder, but the prosecutors decided to group some of them and reach an ac I agree with him to plead guilty.
Long could still face the death penalty in Fulton County, where he is accused of killing the other four people, in the three attacks that occurred in March of this year in the massage parlors, which initially generated a wave of terror in the Asian community when it was confirmed that six of the victims had that origin.
At the hearing held on Tuesday, Wallace said that Long shot “everyone”, motivated by his “sex addiction” and his desire to eliminate the source of his temptation , but not out of hatred towards the Asian community or against women.
“This crime was not motivated by prejudice or hatred against Asian Americans … it was not any type of hate crime,” said the prosecutor on the evidence they collected hard nte investigation.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, however, has already announced that he is seeking the death penalty for Long when he faces trial in that county next month.
The series of attacks, which occurred on 16 began at the Youngs Asian Massage parlor in Cherokee County , where, according to the authorities, Long killed four people, three of them women -two of Asian origin-, identified as Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, from 49 years; Daoyou Feng, from 44; Delaina Yaun, from 33, and Paul Michels, 54.
He also seriously injured the Hispanic Elcías Hernández Ortiz, who said he was miraculously alive after being hospitalized for more than three weeks due to injuries caused by a bullet shot by Long in the forehead.
The Hispanic Mario González also lost his wife, Delaina, in the same Acworth massage parlor, where they had arrived to enjoy “a fun moment “As a couple.
The person accused of the massacre later went to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at the Gold Spa and another at the Aromatherapy Spa, identified as Suncha Kim, of 69 years; Soon Chung Park of 74; Hyun Jung Grant, from 51, and Yong Ae Yue, from 63.
With information from agencies