Last Defendant Sentenced for Murdering USC Chinese Graduate Student

Los Angeles–A man was sentenced today to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the 2014 murder of a University of Southern California graduate student from China.

Alberto Ochoa (1/23/97) was found guilty in December of one count each of first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, second-degree robbery and attempted second-degree robbery.

Ochoa and three others confronted 24-year-old Xinran Ji, who was walking home from a study group near the USC campus shortly before 1 a.m. on July 24, 2014. Ochoa struck the victim with a bat before he ran away.

Co-defendant Andrew Garcia (dob 12/19/95) eventually caught up to Ji and hit him repeatedly with the bat. Ji headed back to his apartment where he died and was found hours later by a roommate.

In August 2017, Garcia was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after jurors found him guilty of one count each of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. The special circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted robbery was found to be true.

Jonathan Del Carmen (dob 6/2/95) pleaded guilty in August 2017 to one count of second-degree murder. Alejandra Guerrero (dob 6/2/98) was convicted in October 2016 of one count each of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Del Carmen was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison, while Guerrero was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Ochoa, Garcia and Guerrero were each convicted for robbing a man and a woman near Dockweiler Beach, the prosecutor said.

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