Man convicted in 2012 killings of two USC graduate students from China

By Elizabeth Marcellino, City News Service
POSTED: 10/27/14, 5:47 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES >> A man was convicted Monday of two counts of first-degree murder for the killings of a pair of USC graduate students from China during a robbery.

Javier Bolden, 22, faces a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the April 11, 2012, killings of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, who were shot as they sat inside a car that was double-parked on a street near the USC campus. Sentencing is set for Nov. 17.

In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Dan Akemon told jurors that “the evidence of guilt in this case is overwhelming.”

The 23-year-old graduate students were “helpless victims” inside a BMW that presented an “attractive target,” the prosecutor said. He said Bolden and a friend, Bryan Barnes, were “essentially ambushing” the couple and “counting down the seconds of the lives of these victims” as they approached the car from behind while communicating on cell phones.

Barnes, also 22, fired two shots inside the locked car. He pleaded guilty Feb. 5 to a pair of first-degree murder counts and admitted that he discharged a firearm and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Qu crawled out of the vehicle and across the street to try to get help after he was shot once in the head. Wu was shot once in the left side of the body and once in her right arm.

Bolden’s attorney, Andrew Goldman, called the shootings a “horrible, horrible incident,” but maintained that his client is not guilty of the charges.

Goldman said he plans to appeal the conviction.

His client was arrested in Victorville, flown into Los Angeles by helicopter, spent about an hour denying any involvement in the killings while being interrogated by police and was “scared out of his mind” when he was told that he could face the death penalty, Goldman said during trial. He said Bolden then gave police details about the shooting that were “completely inconsistent” with testimony and forensic evidence presented during the trial.

“Someone who was there would know exactly what happened,” the defense attorney told jurors.

The prosecutor said jurors heard Bolden on tape “confessing” to the murders after police presented him with “very compelling” cell phone records that prove he and Barnes were in the area at the time of the killing.

Of the phone records, Bolden’s attorney said, “Javier’s phone is in the area, but that doesn’t place him next to the BMW.”

Goldman told jurors that his client was intimidated by a jailhouse informant in a cell and that Bolden “had to make things up” because he was not at the scene of the shooting.

In his rebuttal argument, Akemon countered that Bolden had provided “excruciating details” about the case and was “not making anything up.”

“In the end, what we have here is we have a very compelling case of guilt against Mr. Bolden,” he said. “This is a mountain of evidence.”

Bolden was also convicted of attempted murder for a Feb. 12, 2012, shooting about three miles away in which a man who was shot in the head suffered permanent brain damage, along with assault with a semi-automatic firearm on a woman who was shot in the leg by a stray bullet.

His mother broke down as the verdicts were being read and declined to speak to reporters outside the courtroom.

The victims’ families were not in court, however, the fathers of both victims gave impassioned statements during Barnes’ trial.

Ming Qu’s father asked for a death sentence for Barnes, who pleaded guilty to avoid that fate.

“Ming and Ying’s lives were so young and precious,” Qu’s father said, telling jurors that they had been in love. He said he and his wife wake up crying at night and dream of their son covered in blood and looking for justice. “The killer must pay a life for a life.”

Prosecutors chose not to seek the death penalty against Bolden.

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