Former second-year Engineering students Guanyu Lu and Baichuan Shu pled guilty yesterday morning to abduction with the intent to extort money, according to attorneys involved in the case.
The students were arrested in November in Fairfax County for kidnapping Fairfax County resident Paul Wang and holding him against his will in a Falls Church motel.
Shu's attorney Daniel Krisky said Shu and Lu had separate hearings, and both pled guilty to the charges to avoid causing further pain to their victim.
"The reason they pled guilty is they are guilty of the offense," he said. "They are sorry and they didn't want to put the family nor the victim under any additional trauma."
Lu's attorney Robert Whitestone said his client pled guilty because the evidence established in the case was simply too overwhelming.
Shu and Lu, according to Gregory Holt, the Fairfax assistant commonwealth attorney and the case's prosecutor, will be sentenced June 6. He said the pair will face punishment ranging from 20 years to life in prison. He added, however, that the exact sentence will be up to the judge.
"He can give them 20 years and suspend all 20 years or he can give them 50 years and suspend all but 20," he said.
In addition to jail time, Shu and Lu could also face deportation after completing their sentence in the commonwealth, Krisky said, noting that the two former students are Chinese nationals. Whitestone, meanwhile, said he hopes the sentencing judge will consider his client for the commonwealth's "Youth Offender Program." He said if the judge rules that Lu or Shu is eligible for this program, which can be made available to people under the age of 21 who have not been convicted of certain crimes, the former students could receive an indeterminate sentence that would end when they are ruled to have been rehabilitated.
Whitestone also said, however, that some questions still remain as to whether his client will be eligible for the program, given Lu's status as a non-citizen.
As the case continued to unfold in the courtroom, further information concerning the details of Shu and Lu's crime was released to the public.
Holt said the former students knew of their victim because of several trips Wang made to the University to visit friends. It is still unclear, though, why Wang was picked as the target of the kidnapping, Holt added.
"We think they [targeted Wang] because they knew his father operated or owned several schools in China, and they believed he had money," Holt said.
Once in Fairfax County, Shu and Lu called Wang on a phone and convinced him to leave his apartment.
Shu or Lu "called [Wang's] cell phone and told him that he was a classmate from high school in China and his car had broken down," Holt said. "He asked Paul if he could come out and help him out."
Holt added that although Wang did not know either Shu or Lu, Wang decided to help because he believed them to be former classmates. After Wang left his apartment, Shu and Lu led their victim to a parking lot near Tyson's Corner.
"He got out of the car and looked around and when he didn't see anyone he turned around to leave," Holt said. "Then he heard footsteps from behind. They pushed him to the ground, told him 'Be quiet and lay down or we will kill you.' Then they taped his eyes shut."
Shu and Lu then took Wang to the Stratford Motor Lodge in Falls Church, Holt said, where they put him in the motel room bathtub, duct-taped his legs and hands, and gagged him. They then used nylon rope to tie his arms and legs to a iron bar in the bathtub.
Holt said Shu and Lu proceeded to call Wang's uncle at some point in the next couple hours to demand a ransom. The pair also had Wang speak to his uncle over the phone several times. Shu and Lu had Wang tell his uncle that the kidnappers wanted money and said if they did not receive the funds, he would be killed, Holt explained. Shu and Lu also told Wang's uncle not to call the police.
Wang's uncle then contacted a friend at Homeland Security, who contacted the FBI, Holt noted. The FBI was able to work with the Fairfax County Police Department to begin investigating the case.
Holt said investigators used phone triangulation to determine that the suspects were in Falls Church, and a detective familiar with the area suggested they keep an eye on the Motor Lodge.
Wang's father then called the police to report that his son's credit card was being used at the Armani Exchange in Tyson's Corner Center. By examining security tapes taken from the store, police were able to obtain an image of Shu and Lu. Investigators then sent these images to the FBI agents monitoring the Falls Church Motor Lodge, Holt said, and the federal agents identified the two men using the images.
"They saw two Chinese men entering and leaving the motel, went and knocked on the door," Holt said. "The FBI agent asked them if he could talk to them; they said no. [The agent] asked if anyone else was there; they said no."
The FBI agent then noticed that the bathroom light of Shu and Lu's room was on, and the door was shut. The officer asked if he could open the door, and Shu and Lu said yes, Holt said.
The agent "saw Paul Wang tied up and then they drew their weapons, ordered them to the ground and called for backup," Holt said, noting Wang's "arms and legs were numb from being tied up; he had some slight dehydration."
Following Shu and Lu's arrest, Holt said Wang was taken to a hospital, where he spent the night recovering before being released the next day.
In a search of the kidnappers' motel room, police found two knives and two Airsoft pellet guns in a drawer. Holt said the guns shoot a high-impact pellet and can "be very painful." The guns, Holt said, also look like real handguns except for plastic red caps at the end of the barrels.
"One was still in the package and one was out, and someone had tried to melt off or darken that red cap to make it look like a real weapon," Holt said.
Police also found security video footage from the Charlottesville Wal-Mart further implicating Shu and Lu, Holt said.
"Wal-Mart officials at that location declined to sell those guns, because they were buying duct tape at the same time," Holt said. "But they purchased the Airsoft pellet guns elsewhere."
The former students are currently in jail without bond where they will remain until sentencing, Holt said.
"It's just an extraordinarily unfortunate situation," Whitestone said.
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