Former University of Illinois doctoral student sentenced to life in prison for the rape, murder of scholar from China

5years ago

Illinois news.

A former doctoral student at the University of Illinois was sentenced to life imprisonment for raping and murdering a 26-year-old Chinese scholar and was kidnapped on a bus. stop near the campus in 2017.

The jury rendered their decision against the accused, Brendt Christensen, 30, on the second day of their deliberations. The same jurors took less than 90 minutes to convict Christensen last month in the assassination of scholar Yingying Zhang.

Prosecutors said Christensen raped, strangled and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and beheading him. Christensen never revealed what he did with Zhang's remains.

Among those who testified was Zhang's mother, Lifeng Ye.

She said Christensen had broken the dreams of Zhang and her family. The young academic was killed months before she intended to get married.

Zhang's father, Ronggao Zhang, cried when he was shown a picture of himself and his daughter at a station as she was heading to the United States.

His boyfriend, Xiaolin Hou, testified that his relatives had hoped that the body would be found, allowing burial in China. Prosecutors said during the trials that Christensen may have destroyed the remains.

Zhang had been in Illinois for only three months - his only time outside of China.

Prosecutors said Zhang was in the wrong place at the wrong time and Christensen, who fantasized about the murder, was determined to kill someone that day.