LOS ANGELES: A 21-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for murdering a Chinese student from the University of Southern California (USC) using a baseball-bat in 2014.
Andrew Garcia and his three other partners attempted to rob Xinran Ji near the USC campus, when he was walking home from a study session on July 24, 2014.
Garcia was convicted on June 8 of first-degree murder.
His co-defendant, the 19 years old Alejandra Guerrero, was convicted last October of first-degree murder for attacking Xinran with a wrench.
Guerrero and the two other young men Jonathan Del Carmen, 22 and Alberto Ochoa, 20, are still waiting their trials.
"We lost the sunshine of our life, he is our only child. The people of our age are planning the weddings for their children, but we will never have the chance to prepare a wedding for our child," Songbo Ji, the victim's father said on Wednesday in the court.
"This is the best result of judgment we can expect so far. The victim will stay in the prison for his whole life time as long as the legislation is not changed." Rose Tsai, the attorney who represents Ji's family, in this case, told Xinhua.
The director of media relation in USC, Eddie North-Hager also made a speech at the court.
He noted that a Xinran Ji Memorial Scholarship had been established at the university, the graduate students of the engineering from China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan region will be qualified to apply for it.