ATLANTA (AP) — A man already sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to fatally shooting four people at a massage business outside Atlanta pleaded not guilty to shooting 4 others on the same day at 2 spas inside the city.
Robert Aaron Long, 22, appeared briefly Tuesday in Fulton County Superior Court, where he entered a not guilty plea on charges including murder, aggravated assault & domestic terrorism. District Attorney Fani Willis is seeking the death penalty.
In July, Long pleaded guilty in Cherokee County to charges including 4 counts of murder. He received 4 sentences of life without parole plus an additional 35 years.
Those killed in Cherokee County were: Paul Michels, 54; Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Delaina Yaun, 33. The Atlanta victims were: Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; & Yong Ae Yue, 63.
Tuesday was the second time Long appeared before Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville. The hearing lasted a few minutes. Glanville asked the defense if they wanted to waive indictment & plead not guilty, & defense attorney Jerilyn Bell said yes. Long did not address the judge. Glanville set the next hearing in the case for Nov. 23.
When the killings happened in March, Asian Americans were already experiencing an uptick in hostility related to the coronavirus pandemic. The fact that a majority of the slain victims were women of Asian descent exacerbated existing feelings of fear & anger. Many have been upset by Long’s assertions that he was motivated by the shame he felt from sexual urges, rather than by racial bias.
Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said during the hearing in July that investigators found no evidence of racial bias motivating the killings. She said that had that case gone to trial, she was prepared to seek the death penalty & would have argued Long was motivated by gender bias.
Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, said last month that she believes race & gender played a role in Long’s motivation. Georgia’s hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it was motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty.
After shooting 5 people at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, Long drove about 30 miles south to Atlanta, where he shot 3 women at Gold Spa & 1 woman across the street at Aromatherapy Spa.
He then headed south on the interstate, and authorities have said he intended to carry out similar attacks in Florida.
But his parents had called police after recognizing their son in images from security video posted online by authorities in Cherokee County. His parents were already tracking his movements through an application on his phone, which allowed authorities to find him & take him into custody on a south Georgia interstate.
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