An 18-year-old woman was convicted Thursday in the death of a Chinese graduate student who was beaten to death by a group of people as he walked home after a study session.
Alejandra Guerrero, the first of four people to be tried in the murder of 24-year-old Xinran Ji during a 2014 robbery attempt at the University of Southern California, was found guilty of first-degree murder and other charges, according to CBS News.
Authorities alleged that Ji, an electrical engineering student, was killed by a group of four people wielding a baseball bat and a wrench as he was walking to his off-campus apartment around 12:45 a.m. He managed to get away from his attackers, only to be caught a block away and beaten again.
He then staggered into his apartment afterwards, where he was found dead the following morning in his bed by his roommate from severe cranial cerebral trauma.
“Xinran came here to this country to chase the American dream,” Qiang Xiao, a Ji family supporter, told KTLA last month. “His right is terminated due to this crime. So now we want to see justice can be served.”
Guerrero, who was 16 at the time of Ji’s death, was tried as an adult and could face up to life in prison without parole when she is sentenced on Nov. 28. Prosecutor John McKinney told the jury during closing arguments that Guerrero minimized her involvement in the murder by claiming that she only hit Ji in the hand with a wrench and lied to police about it.
The other suspects – Jonathan Del Carme, 21, Andrew Garcia, 20 and Albert Ochoa, 19 – are currently awaiting trial in connection with Ji’s death.
The four suspects were driving around town looking for someone to rob when they saw Ji walking alone, officials said. Surveillance cameras show the group surrounding Ji, and him subsequently being chased.
The killing rekindled concerns about the safety of Chinese students at USC – according to CBS News, two other graduate students from China were killed in 2012.
