Man Sentenced 50 Years To Life For Pregnant Pinole Woman's Murder
MARTINEZ (CBS SF) -- Nearly 16 years after a Pinole woman's mutilated body was found in Nevada, the man convicted of killing her was sentenced to 50 years to life in state prison Friday.
Judge John Kennedy said "the evidence was overwhelming of the defendant's guilt" in the 1999 killing of 21-year-old Alice Sin. He sentenced 44-year-old Raymond Wong to two consecutive 25-years-to-life terms.
Wong received his sentence in a tense Martinez courtroom. He has continued to profess his innocence, despite a jury finding him guilty of first-degree murder in June.
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Sin, Wong's girlfriend at the time, was four months pregnant and had a 1-year-old son with him. Wong also had another girlfriend at the time, Jessica Tang, with whom prosecutors said he conspired to kill Sin.
Sin was initially reported missing by the defendant on Nov. 22, 1999. Wong told police that when he last saw Sin, a Diablo Valley College student, she was leaving the Pinole home they lived in to study.
Her bullet-riddled remains were discovered two months later in a Nevada desert. She had also been mutilated, prosecutors said.
Though Wong was identified as a person of interest in the case, he wasn't linked to the murder until December 2011, after he was arrested in San Francisco for using a fake passport.
A subsequent trial shed light on the events surrounding Sin's slaying, particularly testimony that came from a computer forensics expert in 2013.
The expert presented evidence from Wong's computer, including a fragment of an email to Tang containing the phrase "I would have killed her a long time ago -- the only thing that stood in the way was you."
The examination also revealed that Wong had sent an email to several Bay Area news organizations in 2000 claiming to be from a white supremacist group taking responsibility for Sin's killing.
In addition, images of tortured and mutilated women were discovered on his computer, which became a contentious issue between prosecutors and the defense.
Wong's attorney, Tony Serra, argued today that there should be another trial because those images were allowed into evidence. He claims the images, and the fact that jurors learned Wong was arrested for child pornography in 2000, ruined the jury's objectivity.
He also said all the of the evidence was circumstantial, and nothing placed Wong at the scene of the crime.
Kennedy denied the request for a re-trial.
During victim impact statements, Milly Shiu, Sin's friend, spoke to the difficulty of reckoning with no one receiving punishment for Sin's brutal murder for so long.
"To live without closure is something we could all relate to," she said.
She was hoping to see a life sentence for Wong, so that closure could be fully realized, she said.
"My daughter's justice is coming," said Sin's father, Wah. He ended his brief speech by asking Wong to finally admit his crimes.
Wong thumbed through court documents and whispered to his attorneys as they spoke.
When Wong was granted the opportunity to speak to the court, he conveyed that a tragic injustice was committed against him.
"I didn't do this," he said, shaking his head. "I'm at a loss for words."
Later, he added that a false murder conviction like what he alleges happened to him is "something you would read about all the time, but never expect would happen to you."
Wong went on to question some of the evidence in his case when the prosecution called for an objection.
In a later response to Wong's comments, prosecutor Mary Knox said Wong "has never once expressed a shred of remorse" that the mother of his children was killed.
Knox described Wong as a psychopath with "no soul," who in Sin's murder was "acting out depraved, debased fantasies."
The defendant's mother, Fanny Wong, defended his character. Through a translator, she described him as a hard-working man and a loving husband. She believes he was innocent.
Serra, who Wong filed a motion to dismiss as an attorney Friday, holds that Wong wasn't proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Serra said he's hoping some relief comes for Wong in appellate courts.
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