The remaining suspect in the October 1, 2022, robbery of a wig shop in downtown LA’s Fashion District, where owner Du-Young Lee was fatally stabbed, was sentenced to seven years in prison as a juvenile.
According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office on March 14, the suspect, charged with voluntary manslaughter in juvenile court, received sentencing as a juvenile rather than an adult. The suspect, a minor (17 years old) at the time of the crime, is accused of using a weapon against Lee, resulting in his death.
Despite being a murder case, the juvenile court imposed a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, citing the suspect’s age at the time of the crime.
“The juvenile pleaded guilty to murder today and will serve the maximum sentence of seven years in a Secure Youth Treatment Facility,” stated the county prosecutor’s office.
On December 5 of last year, the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court similarly sentenced another suspect charged with the same crime to five years in prison, also taking into account that the suspect was 17 years old at the time.
The decision on whether to treat the suspect as an adult or a juvenile was made by the Juvenile Alternative Charging Evaluation (JACE) committee, as confirmed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Lee’s only daughter, Chaerin Lee, continues to struggle with the fact that the two murder suspects were handed relatively lenient sentences of five to seven years in prison.
“I don’t believe the LA County prosecutors ever seriously considered treating the suspects as adults,” remarked daughter Lee, who now manages the store her father left behind. “I’m left alone to deal with this, and the past year and a half has only heightened my hopes for proper justice to be served.”
BY HYOUNGJAE KIM, HOONSIK WOO [kim.ian@koreadaily.com]
