Two defendants, Zhe Zhang and Qing Ming Yu, recently appealed to the United States Second Circuit Court of Appeals against the conviction and life imprisonment sentence handed down by a federal court in 2019 for the Flushing hired murder case. They were charged with conspiring to murder Chris Gu, a former employee of Qing Ming Yu, in exchange for payment, and in 2023, a jury in the Eastern District of New York Federal Court found them guilty. However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected all their appeals this Monday (April 28) and upheld the original verdict.
In their appeal, Zhang and Yu raised four main points: (1) insufficient prosecution evidence to prove the agreement to exchange money for the murder plot; (2) prosecution changing its narrative on the “money value” during the trial, violating the defendants’ due process rights; (3) government failure to disclose potentially favorable evidence to the defendants, leading to an unfair trial; (4) the district court’s misinterpretation of Section 1958(a) as requiring mandatory life imprisonment or the death penalty.
The Second Circuit Court ultimately dismissed all of the above claims, ruling that there were no errors in the trial process and sentencing by the district court.
In 2015, Chris Gu joined the construction company Amaco, led by Qing Ming Yu, and excelled in his work, earning recognition. In 2018, Chris started his own company, poaching employees and clients from Amaco, which angered Yu. In October of that year, Yu and his nephew You You plotted to kill Chris and sought the assistance of Zhe Zhang, promising him future real estate industry contacts and resources as a reward.
In the early hours of February 12, 2019, Chris Gu was shot dead after a Chinese New Year party in Flushing. Investigations revealed that Zhe Zhang was responsible for driving the hired shooter, Anthony Abreu. In 2022, Zhang and Yu were indicted and tried in 2023, with the jury ultimately finding them guilty of hired murder and conspiracy to commit hired murder, sentencing them to life imprisonment under Section 1958(a).
The Second Circuit Court noted that Qing Ming Yu’s promise to transfer real estate business contacts and resources to Zhe Zhang constituted legally “valuable items of money,” meeting the criteria for the charge of hired murder. Evidence included recorded conversations between Yu and Zhang in 2018, testimony from his nephew You You (who pleaded guilty and became a cooperating witness for the prosecution), as well as details of the murder plot, communication records, and financial transactions related to the crime.
Although the defendants argued that Zhe Zhang did not directly receive payment and had no motive to commit the murder, the jury could reasonably infer that Zhang’s involvement in the case was for the networking opportunities and career prospects in the real estate industry. Furthermore, the court explicitly ruled that Section 1958(a) imposes mandatory life imprisonment as the minimum sentence for a successful conviction.