Man Sentenced For Beating Death of USC Grad Student

– Photo courtesy of Tony Webster (CC-BY-SA-4.0)

A 21-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday, Aug. 16 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the 2014 murder of a University of Southern California graduate student, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced.

In June, Andrew Garcia was found guilty of one count each of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. The special circumstance allegation of murder during an attempted robbery was found to be true.

He was sentenced Wednesday by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli.

Deputy District Attorney John McKinney with the Major Crimes Division prosecuted the case.

Garcia and others confronted 24-year-old Xinran Ji, who was walking home from a study group near the USC campus shortly before 1 a.m. on July 24, 2014. The victim was struck several times with a bat and a wrench before he ran away.

Garcia eventually caught up to Ji and hit him repeatedly with the bat. Ji made his way back to his apartment where he died. He was found hours later by a roommate.

Garcia, along with co-defendants Albert Ochoa, Jonathan Del Carmen and Alejandra Guerrero also robbed a man and a woman near Dockweiler Beach, the prosecutor said.

Guerrero, who was 16 when the murder occurred, was convicted in Oct. 2016 of one count each of first-degree murder, robbery, attempted robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. A sentencing date hasn’t been set.

Del Carmen and Ochoa are awaiting trial. Case BA427590 was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.

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