Guilty plea in Zhang murder

[thelefteyeguy]

Guilty plea in Zhang murder
Toronto girl taken from her bedroom in October, 2003
May 9, 2006. 10:12 AM
THESTAR.COM STAFF


Chinese visa student Min Chen, 23, pleaded guilty today to second-degree murder in the 2003 abduction and slaying of 9-year-old Toronto schoolgirl Cecilia Zhang.
Chen entered the surprise plea in a Brampton courtroom this morning. He has been sentenced to life in prison.

Chen admitted in court that he smothered Zhang by placing his hand over her mouth.

Zhang was abducted from her bed on the night of Oct. 20, 2003. Her parents were asleep only metres away inside the North York family home near Finch Ave. and Highway 404.

Zhang’s disappearance triggered an exhaustive, weeks-long search by police and volunteers. Her case was featured on the TV program America’s Most Wanted.

Nevertheless, no trace of Zhang was found for five months.

On March 27, 2004, a Mississauga resident was drawn to a ravine behind the Church of Croatian Martyrs by the sound of coyotes. In a wooded area there beside the Credit River, Zhang’s body was found.

Peel police have never revealed the cause of death, the reasons behind her abduction or why the Seneca Hills Public School student was slain.

Chen was arrested July 21, 2004.

The Shanghai-born resident was living in Canada under a student visa that was about to expire although the former Seneca College student had quit school several months earlier.

With files from Canadian Press

[Rehan]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968793972154

Cecilia died during abduction

Guilty plea will result in life sentence
Crown says it does not 'fully accept' Chen's story

May 9, 2006. 11:17 AM
THESTAR.COM STAFF

BRAMPTON - Chinese visa student Min Chen today admitted in court that he abducted and murdered 9-year-old Cecilia Zhang.

With defence lawyer John Rosen standing by his side, the 23-year-old pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the Oct. 20, 2003 slaying of the Toronto schoolgirl.

In an agreed statement of facts, Chen said he accidentally suffocated Cecilia as he carried her from the family’s North York home. Chen said the crime was a kidnapping for ransom to pay for a marriage of convenience that would allow him to stay in Canada.

But after putting the child in his trunk and checking on her moments later, Chen realized she was dead, Crown counsel Mark Saltmarsh told a Brampton court.

The shocking admission in the Brampton courtroom, filled with members of the Peel and Toronto police task force that investigated the case, abruptly ended what was expected to be a weeks-long trial.

Justice Bruce Durno asked Chen many questions about his decision to plead guilty and the young man stood impassively in the prisoner’s dock, saying "Yes," 13 times, "No," twice and "I understand," three times in response.

He uttered the single word - "Guilty" - when a court attendant asked for his plea to the charge of second-degree murder.

A sentence was still to be imposed on Chen, who will likely be deported back to mainland China if granted parole in 10 or more years.

The abduction and murder of the gifted young pianist tugged at the hearts of residents throughout Greater Toronto and forever linked her with other young Toronto-area homicide victims such as Holly Jones, Kayla Klaudusz, Christopher Stephenson, Andrea Atkinson, Alison Parrott, Christine Jessop, Emanuel Jacques and Sharin Morningstar Keenan.

Chen has been in custody since his arrest on July 21, 2004, meaning he will become eligible for his decade parole in July 2014.

In pleading guilty, Chen admitted he was failing his studies and feared he would forfeit his visa and be forced to return to China.

He devised a scheme to abduct Cecilia. He believed he could get the cash to pay for an arranged marriage and return the girl to her family the same day.

But as he carried her from the home and covered her mouth with his hand to stifle her screams, he suffocated Cecilia even before he reached his car.

Chen told prosecutors he had not intended to harm the girl.

He decided to bury her body in a Mississauga ravine, Saltmarsh told court, but abandoned the plan because the ground was too hard. Her skeletal remains were found March 27, 2004 by a local resident attracted to the ravine by coyote howls.

Saltmarsh said prosecutors did not "fully accept" Chen's version of events, but had no evidence to prove otherwise.

He said Chen's plea deal was agreed to police investigators and Cecilia's parents.

Three different investigative teams had placed Chen under surveillance for several weeks after Peel Police matched a fingerprint found inside the young girl’s home on Whitehorn Crescent with Chen’s thumbprint found on a discarded kitchen knife in the backyard.

Forensic experts found nine of Chen’s prints on the outside of a kitchen window from which he entered the home the night of the abduction. His thumbprint was also found on a hallway near Cecilia’s bedroom although none of his prints were lifted from anywhere inside the young girl’s room.

The Grade 4 student at Seneca Hills Public School was abducted from her bedroom in the early hours of Oct. 20, 2003.

Cecilia’s parents, Raymond Zhang and Sherry Xu, last saw their daughter alive when they put her to bed at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 19. Sherry returned to her daughter’s room at about 11:30 p.m. and kissed her goodnight before retiring herself to the master bedroom, located on another landing.

Cecilia’s remains were found five months later in a dry riverbed near the Credit River in Mississauga behind the Church of Croatian Martyrs.

An autopsy failed to determine the cause of her death.

The 6-foot, 150-pound Chen, known by his friends as Felix, had been in Canada since August 2001. He had taken an eight-month course in English at Seneca College from September, 2001 to April 2002 where he was one of 700 foreign students studying on student visas at the college.

In July, 2002, Chen enrolled at the McDonald International Academy, a private school offering Ontario high school credits and English as a second language to about 500 foreign students, mostly from Asia.

Some people will do anything to stay in Canada.

[mustanglover76]

I'm shocked he admitted his guilt on the first day...i guess he had to sit with this for 2 years and he coulnd't take it anymore...wonder whats going to happen him in prison...

[boonjaca]

He'll get brutalized big time, I heard that criminals don't take too lightly to others hurting children, apparently it's one of their codes. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[EchoAngel911]

what went wrong with him

[15-20_God]

Some people will do anything to stay in Canada.

ironically, he will get to stay in canada but only behind bars.

[B40]

I'm shocked he admitted his guilt on the first day...i guess he had to sit with this for 2 years and he coulnd't take it anymore...wonder whats going to happen him in prison...

The first day is the only day you can enter a guilty plea.

It's either you plea guilty or not guilty... you can't plead not guilty and then halfway through change your mind...

He most likely got a lower sentence or some sort of incentive to plea guilty... that or he realized he had no chance and nothing to gain by pleading not guilty.

[thelefteyeguy]

wonder if he'll make a visit with Shaner

[d_jedi]

He most likely got a lower sentence or some sort of incentive to plea guilty... that or he realized he had no chance and nothing to gain by pleading not guilty.

He has been sentenced to life in prison.

Doesn't look like it..

Seriously, it's for people like this that we need the death penalty.

[fakishan]

Seriously, it's for people like this that we need the death penalty.

are you kidding?

[d_jedi]

are you kidding me?

You think this guy who murdered an 11 year old girl deserves to live?

[john widow]

what an idiot seriously.

[fakishan]

You think this guy who murdered an 11 year old girl deserves to live?

I think he should be punished with a long imprisonment, and then deported since he'd of failed his visa requirements. I'm sure china or whatever is very accepting of loosers coming back with a criminal record

The death penalty should be reserved for those that cannot be saved. Mainly "repeat offenders" of violent crime.

You're simpleton view of killing of undesirables doesn't work, and that's because your mind can't grasp as to why violent crime is commited. Give the penal system time to mature. I believe one day, we'll declare prisoners non-citizens and put them to slave labour for the betterement of the civilized world. Perhaps in mining colonies on Mars or for medical testing

[webdoctors]

actually, i wonder if he'll get treated badly in China after he gets booted out of Canada after his jail sentence. Maybe they'll incarcerate him there too and harvest his organs...

[fakishan]

actually, i wonder if he'll get treated badly in China after he gets booted out of Canada after his jail sentence. Maybe they'll incarcerate him there too and harvest his organs...

that should be none of our concern. we can sympathize with refugees and people screwed by bureaucracy, but not with criminals.