A young man who fatally shot a prostitute during a botched robbery at a Burnaby brothel was raised to adult court on Thursday and received a sentence of life in prison.
Peter Quon San Wong, who was 17 at the time of the March 2009 slaying of Ping Li, 32, was convicted of first-degree murder by a B.C. Supreme Court jury in February 2012. Wong, now 22, was also convicted in the shooting of brothel operator Xing Li, who survived.
Due to his age at the time of the offence, a publication ban on Wong's identity was in effect during the trial but that ban was lifted by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Greyell after he imposed the adult sentence Thursday.
The Crown had applied to have him raised to adult court for the purposes of sentencing, an application opposed by Wong's lawyer.
The judge said the harm caused by Wong was "extremely serious" and noted that the Chinese parents of Ping Li must now "live with the pain of having lost their only child."
"Peter Wong's victims were defenceless and were compliant. As stated, the offences here involved the highest degree of moral culpability. There are no apparent mitigating circumstances, apart from Peter Wong's age."
Wong visited the brothel, located in a Burnaby highrise at 2345 Madison Ave., with the intent of robbing the premises.
He went into a bedroom with Ping Li, but shortly thereafter emerged holding a gun to her head, saying it was a robbery and he wanted money.
Xing Li, no relation to the victim, offered Wong whatever money was in his possession but Wong ordered him to the floor and kicked at him while he was on the ground.
Wong hurled a racial insult at Xing Li and demanded the access code to the building so an accomplice could come up to the apartment.
When Xing Li refused to give out the code and tried to stand, Wong fired twice, one of the bullets striking Xing Li in the shoulder.
Xing Li collapsed to the ground.
Xing Li then heard Ping Li begging for her life and offering to give him all of her money but Wong shot her twice in the torso, then fled the scene.
Ping Li, who came to Canada from China as an international student to attend Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
Xing Li was also taken to hospital, put into an induced coma, and survived.
The main issue on sentencing was whether it was appropriate to sentence Wong as a youth or an adult.
A youth sentence for first-degree murder would have resulted in a maximum sentence of six years in prison, followed by four years of community supervision.
An adult sentence for first-degree murder for an offender who was a youth at the time of the offence is life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years.
Noting that pre-sentence psychological reports found that Wong had refused to discuss the crime and showed no apparent remorse, the judge concluded that the most appropriate way to deal with him was through an adult sentence.
Giving Wong credit for pre-sentence custody, the judge reduced the parole ineligibility period to about eight years, seven months.
Wong, who was wearing a blue shirt and dark pants, sat quietly in the prisoner's dock and had little reaction to the sentence.
His mother, who was sitting with other family members in the public gallery directly behind Wong, appeared distraught.
Court heard that prior to the murder, Ping Li had been in New Zealand for several years and wanted to complete a master of business administration degree at the B.C. university.
She got a $10,000 loan from her parents, who live in Shanghai, and travelled to Vancouver. She was accepted into the university, and paid the $7,000 tuition.
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