Acworth spa shooter pleads guilty, sentenced to life
The man charged with killing eight people at spas in the metro Atlanta area has been sentenced to multiple life sentences without parole for crimes in Acworth.
Cherokee County Superior Court Judge Ellen McElyea sentenced Robert Aaron Long on Tuesday to four consecutive life sentences without parole plus 35 years in a state prison.
Long pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and other charges concerning the March 16 shooting at Young’s
Asian Massage, which left four people dead and a man critically injured.
The four victims who died in that shooting were 33-yearold Delaina Yaun-Gonzalez, 54-year-old Paul Andre Michels, 40-year-old Xiaojie Tan and 44-year-old Daoyou Feng.
Long, a 22-year-old from Woodstock, is also accused of killing four more people at two Atlanta spas — Gold Spa and Aroma Therapy Spa. He is charged in the deaths of 74-year-old Soon Chung Park, 51-year-old Hyun Jung Grant, 69-year-old Suncha Kim and 63-year-old Yong
Yue. Six of the eight victims who died were Asian women.
Authorities say Long has blamed the shootings on a “sex addiction” and saw the spas as an outlet for that addiction. When he was arrested in Crisp County, police and prosecutors say he was headed to Florida to commit similar mass shootings.
Deal removes death
penalty
McElyea accepted a negotiated plea between District Attorney Shannon Wallace and Long’s attorneys.
The deal takes the death penalty off the table after prosecutors initially sought the death penalty, Wallace said. Cherokee prosecutors also initially sought hate crimes charges based on gender prejudice, though they did not believe they would be able to prove the shootings were racially motivated in a trial, she said.
Long still faces murder charges in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani Willis has said she is seeking the death penalty, and also enhanced penalties associated with hate crimes charges.