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REDWOOD CITY
30-year-sentence in immigrant's killing
- John Coté
Saturday, August 19, 2006



A San Mateo County Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced Bobby Tran to 30 years in prison for killing a 22-year-old Chinese immigrant who had enlisted his help arranging a sham marriage so she could stay in the United States.

Tran, 31, said nothing at the sentencing. The victim's family was in China and could not be present, prosecutor Al Giannini said.

The sentence was part of a deal in which Tran pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and other charges in June. He had faced up to life in prison if a jury convicted him of murdering Xiu Li Jiang, who worked in a Mission Street massage parlor.

Jiang's dismembered body was found June 7, 2002, sealed in a garbage can inside a Daly City storage facility. She had been missing for more than three years. An autopsy showed Jiang had been dismembered into nine pieces with a saw.

Tran, who has several prior arrests -- including for kidnapping, felony assault and forgery -- shot Jiang in a dispute over money after she failed to deposit thousands of dollars into a joint account that Tran intended to plunder, prosecutors said.

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