A former University of Illinois doctoral student on Thursday was spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and killing a 26-year-old academic from China.
Her parents, disappointed he was not sentenced to death, publicly begged for the killer to reveal where her remains are so they can be returned home.
Jurors deliberated about eight hours over two days before announcing they were deadlocked on whether 30-year-old Brendt Christensen should be put to death for killing Zhang Yingying (章瑩穎) in 2017 as part of a homicidal fantasy, automatically resulting in a sentence of life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
Federal Judge James Shadid later castigated Christensen in court as he formally sentenced him, telling him his “inexplicable act of violence has taken its toll on so many, first and foremost the Zhang family.”
“The Zhang family ... must live with the thought that Yingying was ripped away from them by a total stranger, thousands of miles away, fulfilling his self-absorbed and selfish fantasies,” he told Christensen.
The same jurors took less than 90 minutes to convict Christensen last month for abducting Zhang from a bus stop, then raping, choking and stabbing her, before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her.
Prosecutors called for the death penalty, which the Zhang family also supported, but a jury decision on that had to be unanimous.
Christensen, who has never revealed what he did with Zhang’s remains, shut his eyes in obvious relief and looked back smiling at his mother when he heard that his life would be spared. He also hugged his lawyers.
Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, but Christensen was charged under federal law, which allows for capital punishment.
Speaking through an interpreter outside the court, Zhang’s father, Zhang Ronggao (章榮高), appealed to Christensen to reveal where her body is so that the family can take her remains back to China.
“If you have any humanity left in your soul, please end our torment. Please let us bring Yingying home,” he said.
US Attorney for Central Illinois John Milhiser said that efforts to find Zhang Yingying’s remains would continue.
As Milhiser spoke, Zhang Yingying’s mother, Ye Lifeng (葉麗鳳), sobbed.
When the judge asked Christensen if he wanted to make a statement at the formal sentencing, Christensen responded politely: “No, thank you.”
Minutes later, Shadid criticized him for not taking the opportunity to make a statement for the first time publicly and express remorse, especially when he no longer had anything to lose.
“You could have said whatever you wanted to say for as little or as long as you wished,” Shadid said. “And yet today, 769 days after you took Yingying’s life, you could not muster a simple: ‘I’m sorry.’”
Christensen sat stone-faced, looking straight ahead and not at the judge.
Shadid said he hoped that Christensen might one day consider an apology before he dies “lonely” and “isolated” in prison.
“Maybe, just maybe, the moment will strike you to pick up paper and pen and write: ‘I’m sorry,’ to Mr and Mrs Zhang,” he said.
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