Man pleads guilty to 4 Asian spa killings, sentenced to life
CANTON, Ga. (AP) — A man accused of killing eight people, most of them women of Asian descent, at Atlanta-area massage businesses pleaded guilty Tuesday to four of the murders and was handed four sentences of life without parole.
Robert Aaron Long, 22, still faces the death penalty in the four other deaths, which are being prosecuted in a different county. His shooting spree at three different businesses in March ignited outrage and fueled fear among Asian Americans, who were already facing increased hostility at the time linked to the coronavirus pandemic. Many were particularly upset when authorities suggested that Long's crimes were not racially motivated but were instead born of a "sex addiction," which is not recognized as an official disorder.
In comments sure to further frustrate those outraged over Long's apparent targeting of Asian women, a prosecutor reiterated Tuesday that Cherokee County investigators saw no evidence of racial bias. That's at odds with the hate crime enhancement that Long, who is white, faces just miles away in the four deaths in Atlanta.
"This was not any kind of hate crime," District Attorney Shannon Wallace said.
On March 16, Long shot and killed four people, three of them women and two of Asian descent, at Youngs Asian Massage in Cherokee County, according to police accounts. A fifth person was wounded. Long then drove to Atlanta, where he shot and killed three women at Gold Spa before going across the the street to Aromatherapy Spa and fatally shooting another woman, police have said. All of the Atlanta victims were of Asian descent.
In Atlanta, Long could be sentenced to death if convicted in the four deaths. There, he also faces charges of domestic terrorism in addition to murder, and prosecutors have said they will seek to have the deaths classified as a hate crime.
Wallace explained that Cherokee County prosecutors came to a different conclusion. When Long walked through the first spa "shooting anyone and everyone he saw," Wallace he was motivated by a "sex addiction" and his desire to eliminate sources of temptation at businesses where he engaged in sex acts.
As for gender bias, Wallace said a hate crime enhancement based on hatred of women would not have significantly extended his sentence.
The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize sex addiction in its main reference guide for mental disorders. While some people struggle to control their sexual behaviors, it's often linked to other recognized disorders or moral views about sexuality, said David Ley, clinical psychologist and author of "The Myth of Sex Addiction."