http://www.cireport.ca/2013/04/richmond-chang-xi-wang-sentenced-to-life-after-fatal-stabbing-in-mcdonalds-restaurant.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CIReport+%28Canadian+Immigration+Report%29Richmond : Chang Xi Wang sentenced to life after fatal stabbing in McDonald’s restaurant
Posted by CIReport.ca on Apr 16, 2013 | 0 comments
http://www.theprovince.com/news/Love+triangle+murderer+must+serve+years+jail/8245911/story.html
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The defendant required an interpreter during the three-year trial
A man who fatally stabbed two people involved with him in a love triangle has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 15 years.
In February, Chang Xi Wang, 33, pleaded guilty to the August 2009 manslaughter of his estranged wife, Yan Lin, 37, and to the second-degree murder of her former husband, Zhe Hu, 38.
The slayings happened in front of horrified patrons and staff at a McDonald’s restaurant on No. 3 Road in Richmond.
In the months leading up to the murder, Wang got more and more angry at Lin and Hu, immigration consultants who were divorced from one another but still living together.
Wang met and married Lin in China and came to Canada under her sponsorship. While she was still living with Hu in Richmond, she put Wang up in a rooming house and provided financial support for him.
But Wang became upset with the arrangement and a year before the slayings, he went to Lin’s house, threatened to kill Lin, who was pregnant with his child, and assaulted her.
He was convicted of assault and was ordered to have no contact with her or Hu. But he continued to have contact with Lin and became angry when she told him she was divorcing him and wanted to resume a relationship with Hu.
On the night of the slayings, the three met at the restaurant and Lin texted a friend to say that Wang had agreed to receive a payment of 137,000 Yuan (more than $22,000 Cdn).
But Wang assaulted Hu and Lin was overheard saying, “Stop him.” She tried to intervene but, using a steak knife, Wang repeatedly stabbed Hu and once Hu fell to the floor, Wang slit his throat. Wang also repeatedly stabbed Lin and fled, but was arrested shortly afterward.
Wang told the judge that before he watched the surveillance video depicting the murder he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong. “I’m a human being. I’m not the devil,” Wang said.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman imposed the mandatory sentence of life in prison with no parole for 15 years for the murder and 10 years in prison for the manslaughter, reduced to two years, nine months after credit for pre-sentence custody. The murder and manslaughter sentences are concurrent.