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Thread: Death Penalty Trial Delayed for Robert Aaron Long in 2021 GA Spree Killings

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    An administration that announced they won't pursue the death penalty or a state that has secured a single death sentence in 8 years. I wonder, which one is more of a waste of time.
    Last edited by Mike; 03-18-2021 at 09:17 PM.
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  2. #12
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    Prosecutor plans to seek death penalty in spa shootings

    By Kate Brumback
    Associated Press

    ATLANTA (AP) — A man accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was indicted Tuesday on murder charges, and a prosecutor filed notice that she’ll also seek hate crime charges and the death penalty.

    A Fulton County grand jury indicted Robert Aaron Long, 22, in the March 16 slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. The indictment only covers those four killings that happened at two spas in Atlanta, and not the attack in Cherokee County in which Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice that she intends to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Long, who is white. The hate crime charges are based on actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender, according to online records. Georgia’s new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it’s a hate crime, which carries an additional penalty.

    The indictment charges Long with four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of domestic terrorism, according to online records.

    It will be up to a separate grand jury in Cherokee County to decide on charges in the the shooting at a spa near suburban Woodstock in which four were killed and one person was wounded.

    Willis' decision to seek the death penalty is a departure from her stance during her campaign to be district attorney last year.

    During a candidate forum last year, Willis answered yes when asked: "Will you commit to refuse to seek the death penalty?"

    Police have said Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage near Woodstock just before 5 p.m. on March 16. He also shot and wounded a fifth person, investigators said.

    He then drove about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police have said. All of the Atlanta victims were women of Asian descent.

    After the shootings at the two Atlanta spas, Long got back into his car and headed south on the interstate, police said.

    Long’s parents called authorities to help after recognizing their son in still images from security video that the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office posted on social media. They provided cellphone information that allowed authorities to track their son to rural Crisp County, about 140 miles (225 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

    State troopers and sheriff’s deputies spotted his SUV on Interstate 75, and one of them forced Long to spin to a stop by bumping his vehicle. Long then surrendered to authorities.

    In an initial interview with investigators, Long claimed to have a "sex addiction," and authorities said he apparently lashed out at businesses he viewed as a temptation. But those statements spurred outrage and widespread skepticism given the locations and that six of the eight victims were women of Asian descent.

    https://www.newsoptimist.ca/prosecut...ngs-1.24317710
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Atlanta Spa Shooter Pleads Guilty to 4 of 8 Murders to Avoid Death Penalty; Still Faces Possible Capital Punishment in Atlanta

    By Colin Kalmbacher
    Law & Crime

    On Tuesday morning, the Georgia man pleaded guilty to murdering four of the eight people killed during a day-long spree of violence spread across three separate massage parlors in the Atlanta metropolitan area earlier this year. The defendant’s guilty plea means he will not be eligible for the death penalty over those four admitted murders. At the moment, he still faces the possibility of capital punishment for the deaths of other four people that police and prosecutors say he killed on March 17, 2021.

    Because the killings occurred in two separate counties, the defendant was, so far at least, only allowed to plead guilty to the murders committed at one business in Woodstock, Ga.

    Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace dismissed the prevailing media narrative that Long’s victims were targeted because of their race. Long is white and six of the eight victims were of Asian descent. Instead, Cherokee County came to the conclusion that the admitted murderer attempted to violently eliminate what he perceived as temptations that fed into his purported sex addiction.

    “All of the evidence that was gathered with regard to Cherokee County, your honor, came to the same conclusion, that this crime was not motivated by a bias or hate against Asian Americans,” Wallace explained during a plea hearing. “This was not any kind of hate crime.”

    The DA’s view of what spawned the killing spree is in line with what police in the county first told reporters.

    “He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as something that allows him to go to these places and it’s a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Cherokee County Sheriff’s Captain Jay Baker said at a press conference after the suspect was apprehended and questioned.

    One county over, however, that perspective has been rubbished.

    In Fulton County, Long faces a 19-count indictment that includes charges of murder and domestic terrorism. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has signaled that she intends to seek the death penalty and a hate crimes sentencing enhancement based on the innate characteristics of the four women who were killed in Atlanta.

    “Our investigation is separate from Cherokee County’s investigation; the investigation is slightly different,”Atlanta Deputy Police Chief Charles Hampton, Jr. said the day after the controversial Cherokee County presser where Baker appeared to sympathize with the killer. “We had four Asian females that were killed. And, so, we are looking at everything to make sure that we discover and determine what the motive of our homicides were.”

    A grand jury in Cherokee County indicted Long for the murders of Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54. Those are the killings Long has pleaded guilty to committing.

    A Fulton County grand jury indicted the defendant for the murders of Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63, based on their “actual or perceived race, national origin, sex, and gender.”

    Though the killer’s perceived motivations have sparked sharply contrasting public debate and two separate sets of potential legal consequences in the counties involved, others have cautioned that there may not be much real daylight here. After all, eight people are dead and they were all killed in similar establishments.

    State Rep. Bee Nguyen is the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Peach State legislature. She believes the killings occurred at the “intersection of gender-based violence, misogyny and xenophobia.”

    https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile...nt-in-atlanta/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Robert Aaron Long moved to Fulton County jail; DA will seek death penalty

    By Josh Morgan
    CBS46 News

    FULTON COUNTY, Ga. (CBS46) — Robert Aaron Long, the man now convicted of killing multiple people in a shooting spree earlier this year, has been transferred to Fulton County.

    Earlier this week, Long pleaded guilty for the murders of four people at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County. He entered guilty pleas for all 23 counts in the indictment and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

    But that's not the end of his legal proceedings. He is now in Fulton County where he faces 19 felony charges, including four counts of murder and four counts of felony murder.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis plans to seek the death penalty. His first court appearance in Fulton County is set for Aug. 23 at 9 a.m.

    https://www.cbs46.com/news/robert-aa...6fea36065.html
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Death penalty trial set for man who killed women at two Atlanta spas

    The man convicted for the deadly Cherokee County spa shooting was in court on Tuesday to face new charges.

    Author: Hunter Boyce

    ATLANTA — Robert Aaron Long, currently serving four life sentences without parole plus an additional 35 years, returned to the courtroom on Tuesday to face new charges.

    The man charged in a shooting spree targeting metro Atlanta area spas that left eight people dead earlier this year is now potentially facing the death penalty. A Fulton County court set his trial date for April 19, 2022.

    Two of the parlors targeted in the March 16 shootings were in Atlanta, while the third was in Cherokee County. Six of the eight victims were Asian women.

    Long, 22, was arrested in Crisp County, Georgia as a suspect in the shooting after police used a PIT maneuver to stop his vehicle. He would go on to sign a plea deal, admitting to multiple counts of murder in the killing of four people at the Cherokee County massage parlor.

    Long was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole in Cherokee County, with an additional 35 years to be served in confinement for that shooting.

    That sentencing accounts for the slayings of Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 from within a Cherokee County massage parlor.

    During a press conference following the plea deal, Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis revealed that she still plans to seek the death penalty for those killed in the massage parlors located within Fulton County.

    Willis was vocally against the death penalty prior to the Atlanta spa shootings.

    "Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek it. And at that time I did not," Willis said. "Unfortunately, a case has risen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants the ultimate penalty and we shall seek it."

    "The decisions that I made to seek death were with the complete support of the family," she added.

    Willis is also seeking to enhance Long's sentence with hate crime charges. The case would be the first for the county to concern the hate crime law passed by the Georgia Legislature.

    Long last appeared in Fulton County court for an arraignment on Sept. 28. He entered a not guilty plea to his charges, including the murder of the four people killed at the two Fulton County massage parlors.

    He was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in the slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63 from within two different Fulton County massage parlors.

    https://www.11alive.com/article/news...6-80f6cc88a42a
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  6. #16
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Fulton DA stands by seeking death penalty against alleged spa shooter

    By WSBTV.com News Staff

    ATLANTA — Wednesday will mark one year since a gunman opened fire at spas in Cherokee County and the city of Atlanta, killing eight people. Six were Asian women.

    Robert Aaron Long pleaded guilty to the shootings in Cherokee County, but not guilty to the charges in Fulton County.

    Channel 2 investigative reporter Mark Winne spoke exclusively to Willis on Tuesday about the case.

    Willis said it’s the first death penalty case she’s pursued since being elected as DA, and it comes after hours of consultation with the victims’ families.

    The spa shootings case also marks the first time her office has used the state’s new hate crime law because four of the murder victims were allegedly targeted because they were Asian women.

    “When you ran for DA, did you anticipate ever bringing a death penalty case?” Winne asked Willis.

    “No. In fact, I told voters I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek death. I didn’t imagine that less than three months into my term we would have a shooting spree that took the lives of eight people, four of which were in my jurisdiction,” Willis said.

    Willis suggests even if she couldn’t imagine a case that would come to her worthy of the death penalty, the crimes of which Long is accused were once unimaginable to her, and that even if she had once never intended to seek the death penalty, the state’s notice of intent to seek the death penalty was the right thing.

    “Is there an element of if we don’t seek the death penalty with these allegations, why have it?” Winne asked Willis.

    “I think the death penalty is something that should be used very, very sparingly and only in the worst cases, and I think that this case meets that standard,” Willis said.

    A Fulton County indictment charges Long with murder in the shootings of Hyun Jung Grant, Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim and Yong Ae Yue, and with numerous other counts including domestic terrorism.

    Long has pleaded not guilty to every charge in the Fulton County indictment.

    “Will his guilty pleas in Cherokee County be something you can use as evidence of similar crimes?” Winne asked Willis.

    “Yes,” Willis said.

    “This will be the first time your office has used the new hate crime law?” Winne asked Willis.

    “Yes. It’s not the only case that the office currently has it filed under, but this was the first time when we filed,” Willis said.

    “The hate crimes theory is?” Winne asked Willis.

    “That these crimes were motivated by a bias against two communities one being women and the second being Asian Americans,” Willis said.

    “Where does the case stand right now?” Winne asked.

    “At this time, we are awaiting motions. We expect to do the motions in this case in May of this year,” Willis said.

    A transcript shows the defense has indicated it will be challenging some things, filing motions on a number of issues.

    “I put two of my top prosecutors on the case -- the executive district attorney over the major crimes division, Mike Carlson -- he comes with more than 25 years of experience, most of that in prosecution, and a young but very, very strong prosecutor, Adam Abate,” Willis said. “I am sure that they will do an amazing job for these families and for this community.”

    Reportedly, the Cherokee County Sheriff said Long claimed the shootings were not racially motivated. The DA’s office says a fifth alleged hate crimes victim was Latino, but was not killed.

    https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atl...outputType=amp
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  7. #17
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Obviously the media can't let pornography's deleterious effects on men enter the realm of mainstream discourse, so they scapegoat "white supremacy" even though Whites don't come close to committing the majority of violent attacks against Asians. Just imagine if "stop pornography" were given the same platform as the "stop Asian hate" campaign. Obviously, hatred of Asians should be condemned. However, people should realize that sex and porn addiction fomented this more than animus against Asians.

    That said most addicts don't lash out in such a manner and I wholeheartedly hope Long is sentenced to death.
    Don't ask questions, just consume product and then get excited for next products.

    "They will hurt you. They will hurt your grandma, these people. The root cause of this is there's no discipline in the homes, they don't go to school, you know, they live off the government, no personal accountability, and they just beat people up for no reason, and it's disgusting." - Former Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters

  8. #18
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    A year later, spa shooting victims' families grieve and heal

    Robert Peterson misses spending Sundays with his mother, cooking and running errands. Dana Toole plays a video of her sister over and over just to hear her voice. Michael Webb has started speaking out about gun control since his ex-wife's fatal shooting.

    A year after a gunman killed 8 people at 3 Georgia massage businesses, their family members and friends are struggling with grief and trying to heal while dealing with the intense public attention focused on the horrific slayings.

    “Our whole world just changed. It blew up in that moment,” said Peterson, whose mother, Yong Ae Yue, was among the dead. “It was a bit overwhelming. We didn’t ask to be here. It was weird to have people so interested.”

    Robert Aaron Long, 22, shot and killed 4 people — Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 — and seriously injured a fifth person at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County on March 16, 2021. Authorities say he then drove about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south to Atlanta, where he killed 3 women — Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51 — at Gold Spa, crossed the street and killed Yue, 63, at Aromatherapy Spa.

    2 of the Cherokee County victims and all of the Atlanta victims were women of Asian descent. The killings heightened anger and fear among Asian Americans already experiencing a rise in hostility, which has continued. The shootings brought increased awareness to that trend and galvanized more people, including non-Asians, to get involved in the movement to fight it.

    Many Asian Americans and their allies bristled at suggestions that Long, who told investigators he felt ashamed of sexual urges and saw the spas as a source of temptation, wasn’t motivated by racial bias.

    The Cherokee County district attorney, citing the racial diversity of the victims there — 2 of whom were white and 1 Hispanic — among other things, did not find evidence of racial animus. But the Fulton County district attorney is pursuing a sentencing enhancement under the state hate crimes law, saying she believes race and gender played a role in the Atlanta killings.

    Webb — who was still very close to Tan, his ex-wife — said the shootings opened his eyes to anti-Asian violence and made him worry for his two daughters, who are both of Asian descent.

    Noting that Long bought his gun the day of the shootings, Webb speculated that if there had been a waiting period, “there’s at least a reasonable likelihood (Tan) would still be alive.”

    A gun owner for decades, Webb said he's long had moderate views on gun control. Background checks, mandatory safety classes and waiting periods make sense to him and, since the shootings, he's spoken out about that publicly.

    Toole, Yaun's half sister, said she was terrified to leave her house after the shootings and is considering getting a gun. A newlywed with an infant daughter and teenage son, Yaun was at the Cherokee County spa with her husband, who survived. If she'd had a gun, maybe she'd be alive, Toole said.

    “She had no way of defending herself,” said Toole, who fears leaving her own children without a mother.

    Long pleaded guilty in July to murder and other charges in the Cherokee County shooting. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    Toole said she felt angry watching him in court because she didn't see any remorse. But she agreed with the district attorney's decision not to seek the death penalty.

    “Just because he took other people's lives that day, to me it didn't give us the right to take his,” she said.

    Webb said he and his daughter, Jami — Tan's daughter whom he adopted after they married — favored the death penalty for Long. But after the district attorney explained the lengthy process for a death penalty case, they quickly came around to the idea of locking him up for life and putting it behind them.

    “We really felt a relief it was over,” he said.

    Long still faces charges including murder in the Atlanta killings and has pleaded not guilty. The Fulton County district attorney is seeking the death penalty in addition to a hate crime sentencing enhancement.

    Peterson said he and other victims' family members agreed the death penalty was appropriate, but it’s more important to him to have the killings labeled a hate crime. As the son of a Korean mother and a Black father, he said he's conflicted because he doesn't generally support the death penalty and its disproportionate use on people of color.

    With a background in sociology and social justice, Peterson wants to start an organization in his mother’s honor to fight discrimination and promote social equity.

    It's the small things about his mother — her laughter, her cooking and the way she loved hearing about her sons' lives — that Peterson misses. He'd get annoyed when she'd call and ask him to drive from Atlanta to her home in the suburbs to change a smoke detector battery or update her computer. But now he lives in his mother's house and doing the same little tasks for his widowed neighbor “fills me with joy,” he said, tears welling in his eyes.

    “Being and feeling wanted and needed, feeling safe — that’s what I miss most,” Peterson said.

    Toole hasn't visited her sister's grave since her funeral because she doesn't want to believe she's gone. She breaks down when she drives past the cemetery or the spa. On Toole's 30th birthday, seven weeks after the shooting, she stayed in because her sister wasn't there to celebrate as planned.

    The close pair loved going to Six Flags amusement park and had water fights at family parties. Toole even recalls Yaun's faults with affection: “She was always late, but it didn't matter because she always showed up.”

    Though Webb and Tan divorced roughly a decade ago, they spoke regularly. Tan, who owned the Cherokee County spa, worked constantly and saved most of her earnings, planning to retire in her early 50s to travel and spend time with her family.

    “The sadness really comes from the fact that her life was cut short before she could fulfill her dream,” Webb said. “She was healthy and strong. It's just so, so sad.”

    (source: Associated Press)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  9. #19
    Moderator Bobsicles's Avatar
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    Motions hearing scheduled Tuesday for admitted spa shooter

    Defense attorneys hope to keep Robert Aaron Long off death row

    By Shaddi Abusaid
    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    The 23-year-old facing the death penalty in last year’s spa shooting rampage that killed eight people across metro Atlanta is scheduled to appear in a Fulton County courtroom Tuesday morning for a motions hearing.

    Robert Aaron Long admitted to the shootings after his arrest and has already been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 35 years, for killing four people and wounding a fifth at a spa in Cherokee County.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking the death penalty for the two shootings in Atlanta that left four others dead, setting the stage for what could be a lengthy, high-profile trial.

    The motions hearing is set to begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday in Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville’s courtroom.

    Six of the eight victims killed on March 16, 2021, were Asian women. The shootings stunned the nation and galvanized members of metro Atlanta’s Asian American community, prompting rallies and the widespread condemnation of what many viewed as an apparent hate crime.

    Long’s attorneys filed more than two dozen motions last week seeking to keep their client off death row. They argued, among other things, that as a 21-year-old, Long’s brain wasn’t completely developed when he allegedly walked into the three spas and opened fire with a gun he had purchased earlier that day.

    “Mr. Long’s youth at the time of the offense ... substantially lessens his culpability and a sentence of death would be disproportionate to his diminished moral blameworthiness,” one defense motion reads.

    During her campaign to become Fulton DA, Willis said she could not foresee a case in which she would seek the death penalty. But the longtime prosecutor said last year’s brutal killings of eight people at three separate businesses changed her mind.

    According to Willis, her decision to seek the death penalty was made with the “complete support” of the Atlanta victims’ families. In addition, Fulton prosecutors are seeking sentencing enhancements for Long under Georgia’s hate crimes statute.

    That law, passed in the wake of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder in coastal Georgia, allows for stiffer punishments for anyone convicted of targeting a victim based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender, mental disability or physical disability.

    After the shooting, Long told investigators he had visited the spas in the past and that he targeted the businesses because he had a sex addiction and wanted to “eliminate temptation,” police said. Long also told authorities that he initially bought the 9mm handgun at a gun store near his parents’ home because he planned to kill himself.

    He later drove to a liquor store to pick up bourbon, and from there he went to Youngs Asian Massage near Acworth in his dark-colored Hyundai SUV. Outside the business, Long sat in his SUV and drank for about an hour before going inside, he told investigators. He first paid for a service, he said. Then he went to the restroom, pulled out his gun and began shooting.

    “I don’t recall thinking much after I pulled the trigger first,” Long said in a Cherokee courtroom last year before entering his guilty plea. “My mind felt like it was blank.”

    Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Delaina Yaun, 33, and Paul Michels, 54, were killed at Youngs Asian Massage. A fifth person, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, was injured.

    Afterward, Long got in his SUV and drove about 30 miles to Piedmont Road in Atlanta where Yong Ae Yue, 63, Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, were killed at the Gold Spa and the Aromatherapy Spa, authorities said.

    Long was captured that evening in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta, after his parents learned of the shootings and helped police track his vehicle. Investigators said Long told them he had planned to drive to Florida and carry out similar crimes.

    Long pleaded not guilty last year to the Fulton County shootings.

    According to the DA’s office, the last person sentenced to death in Fulton was Jeremy Moody in 2013. A jury sentenced Moody to die by lethal injection after he pleaded guilty to killing 15-year-old Delarlnova “Del” Mattox and 13-year-old Chrisondra Sierra Kimble with a screwdriver.

    The teenage cousins were reported missing after they walked from their home to a store an Old National Highway to buy some snacks in 2007. They were later found stripped of their clothes and stabbed multiple times in the head and neck, authorities said. Kimble had been raped.

    Moody remains on death row at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Butts County.

    https://www.ajc.com/news/crime/motio...outputType=amp
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

    Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. - Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt

    I’m going to the ghost McDonalds - Garcello

  10. #20
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    Suspect in Atlanta spa shootings seeking to avoid death row

    Attorneys argued in a filing that his young age should bar the death penalty.

    By Meredith Deliso

    Attorneys for Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the Atlanta spa shootings case, are seeking to dismiss the death penalty as he awaits trial on multiple murder charges for the March 2021 massacre.

    Long, 23, was indicted last year for the deaths of four women that occurred at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Fulton County, Georgia.

    He previously pleaded guilty to four other murders that took place the same day at Young's Asian Massage in Cherokee County. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional 35 years.

    Long pleaded not guilty in Fulton County last year to four counts of murder, among other charges. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she'd seek the death penalty and hate crime charges against Long.

    Long appeared in Fulton County court Tuesday for a motions hearing. His attorneys have filed dozens of motions on his behalf ahead of the trial, which is expected to start this fall.

    In seeking to dismiss the death penalty, his attorneys argued that the death penalty statute violates his constitutional rights and that the capital jury process could be biased against him.

    They also argued that Long's age should bar the death penalty.

    "The Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment protects Mr. Long from disproportionate and excessive punishment," defense attorneys Jerilyn Bell and Christian Lamar wrote. "Mr. Long's youth at the time of the offense -- he was 21 years old -- substantially lessens his culpability, and a sentence of death would be disproportionate to his diminished moral blameworthiness."

    In announcing that she would seek the death penalty, Willis told reporters that the case "warrants the ultimate penalty."

    Willis also filed sentencing enhancements under Georgia’s hate crime law, which offers guidelines for anyone convicted of targeting a person based on race, color, religion and gender. Willis said at the time that race and gender played a role in the shooting.

    In the shooting spree, which occurred across two spas on March 16, 2021, six out of the eight people killed were Asian women.

    The victims in Fulton County were Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

    Paul Michels, 54; Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Delaina Yaun, 33, were killed in the shooting in Cherokee County.

    When he entered his guilty plea in Cherokee County court last year, Long said he loathed his sex addiction and that he blamed it on the spas he claims to have frequented for sex.

    https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/suspec...ry?id=84196035
    Thank you for the adventure - Axol

    Tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn’t even matter - Linkin Park

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