Ping Li, who was employed as a prostitute at a brothel, suffered two gunshot wounds and died shortly after being rushed to hospital in March A youth who was sentenced as an adult in the murder of a sex-trade worker has lost his appeal of his sentence.
Peter Wong was five months short of his 18th birthday when he shot and killed Ping Li, a young woman, as she begged for her life in the Burnaby brothel where she worked. During the course of his attempted robbery of the brothel, Wong also shot Xing Li, the owner of the brothel.
Li was placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks and survived. Wong was convicted by a B. Supreme Court jury of first-degree murder and discharging a firearm with intent to wound in connection with the March slaying.
Following an application by the Crown, on the murder count Wong was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years. He was sentenced to four years in prison for the firearm count, to be served concurrently. On his appeal of the sentence for the murder count, Wong argued that the trial judge had erred by finding his lack of remorse, based on a refusal to speak to mental-health professionals about the offence, was an aggravating factor.
He also claimed that the judge wrongly found the seriousness of the crime to be determinative and failed to consider other relevant factors.
