Spa-slays plea deal
Ga. murderer blames porn shame for spree
Georgia spa mass shooter Robert Aaron Long pleaded guilty Tuesday to four of the eight murders — blaming the slaughter on a drunken, suicidal shame triggered when his roommate caught him watching porn.
Wearing a white button-down shirt and slacks and sporting a bowl haircut, the 22-year-old killer pleaded guilty in Cherokee County Superior Court to the fatal shootings at Young’s Asian Massage in Woodstock, the first part of a March murder spree that spanned two counties. (Four other murders in neighboring Fulton County will be dealt with in separate court proceedings.)
“It never felt like I had a lot of control over those urges and it became obsessive to the point it occupied a lot of thought space,” Long told Judge Ellen McElyea of his feelings of sexual shame. “I wanted to stop the places and basically punish the people that I could.”
He accepted a deal of four life sentences behind bars without the possibility of parole to be served consecutively, plus 35 years on other charges.
Prosecutors planned to seek the death penalty if the case went to trial — and Long could still face death if convicted in Fulton County.
But Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said families of the victims in her jurisdiction wanted the case over with.
“They have been clear and united in their measure — justice and closure are needed now,” Wallace said at a press conference.
“The defendant was merciless in his actions, but the surviving victims and the families of the murdered victims chose to request mercy from the death of this defendant,” she said, “preferring that this defendant spend every remaining day of his life in prison faced with the memories of his own monstrosity.”
Wallace accepted that the four murders were “not any kind of hate crime” — and Long told the court that his plan had been to kill himself.
Long said he went to the spa that day to “act out, receive sexual favors and hopefully hate myself enough to . . . end my own life.”
He first gunned down Paul Michels, 54, who was leaning over a counter.
“I don’t recall thinking much after I pulled the trigger first,” he said. “My mind felt like it was blank.”
He then shot and killed Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33, Xiaojie Tan, 49, and Daoyou Feng, 44, and wounded Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, 30.
Fulton County DA Fani Willis filed notice that she intends to seek a hate-crime sentence enhancement along with the death penalty for the deaths of Suncha Kim, 69, Soon Chung Park, 74, Hyun Jung Grant, 51, and Yong Ae Yue, 63.