A Richmond man who used a cleaver to inflict nearly 250 wounds during a fatal attack on his wife has been sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 12 years.

In November, a B.C. Supreme Court jury found Jian Hua “James” Wu guilty of the May 2014 second-degree murder of Jin “Jenna” Cheng in their apartment building.

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It was the second trial of the accused after the first trial ended in November 2016 in a hung jury following 13 days of jury deliberations, one of the longest deliberations ever in B.C.

At the time of the slaying, which occurred on the day of the couple’s second wedding anniversary, the pair were going through a difficult time in their marriage.

Their sleeping arrangements signified an estrangement as did the decision by each of them not to wear their wedding rings.

Several days before the fatal attack, the level of acrimony was high as Wu came to believe he’d been treated unfairly by his wife after being excluded from a family outing.

After being excluded from a family meal, he took a cleaver-type knife and approached her at the dinner table in their suite in the 7000-block Granville Avenue. The victim suffered at least 250 stab and chop-type wounds, with her injuries most densely distributed over the left part of her neck and elsewhere over her head and neck and both of her hands.

The court heard that the blood-letting resulted in two injuries that likely caused her death —- the cutting of her jugular vein and the near-total cutting of her carotid artery.

In sentencing Wu on Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk said that the aggravating factors included that the murder involved a “severe and prolonged” knife attack.

“He continued the brutal attack despite having the ability to withdraw from his attack. It is most aggravating that Mr. Wu continued the attack, which commenced in the suite, into various locations in the hallway.”

The judge heard that Wu immigrated to Canada from China in 2000. He later met Cheng, his second wife, through online dating and married her in China before she moved to Canada to be with him in 2013.

She noted that the mitigating factors for Wu included that he had no prior criminal record or history of violence and before the fatal attack had been a productive and law-abiding citizen in China and Canada.

The judge said that Wu had been a model prisoner since his arrest and there was every indication from his character and post-offence conduct that he will have a productive life in the future.

“He’s shown regret and remorse and expressed it at length to the court in English, his second language,” said Watchuk. “Importantly, Mr. Wu expressed sincere insight into the effect of his offence on the family of Ms. Cheng.”

Bo Cheng, the younger sister of the victim, had filed a statement in court in which she said the death of her loved one had changed their family “radically” and that a family that was once happy is “now covered with thick dark clouds.”

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison with a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of 25 years of parole ineligibility. The judge said the case was aggravated enough to call for 12 years without parole.

The Crown had asked for 15 years without parole while the defence argued that the minimum of 10 was appropriate.

Full story at VancouverSun.com

kfraser@postmedia.com

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