A man known as the “Sun Xiaoguo of Shaanxi” named Guo Erwa was involved in robbery, escaping, intentional murder, and bribery, and had even served a “paper” sentence. Recently, Guo Erwa was sentenced to death for multiple crimes. The victims’ families expressed dissatisfaction with the amount of civil compensation and both parties will appeal.
According to reports from Red Star News, on May 26th, Ji Yanhua, a relative of the victim, received the first-instance judgment from the Yulin Intermediate People’s Court in Shaanxi Province. Guo Erwa, the main suspect in the “Sun Xiaoguo of Shaanxi” case, was sentenced to death for multiple crimes. This information was confirmed by a source close to Guo Erwa. After the first-instance judgment, both parties filed appeals.
The court believed that although Guo Erwa’s family compensated the civil plaintiffs with over 50,000 RMB, it was not enough to mitigate Guo Erwa’s punishment, thus the decision to carry out the death penalty.
Guo Erwa (also known as Guo Huajian) was born in 1975. In 1994, he committed robbery with a knife and later became a coal boss after escaping. Seven years later, he was arrested but escaped mysteriously from prison and was later accused of killing a whistleblower.
In 2007, Yulin Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Guo Erwa to 18 years in prison. In January 2011, he was approved for medical parole and began serving a “paper” sentence. Despite being sentenced to 18 years, he served just over 6 years before being granted medical parole.
Previously, this case has been referred to as the “Sun Xiaoguo of Shaanxi” case.
In April 2020, Guo Erwa was imprisoned again. On June 28 of the same year, the Yulin Intermediate People’s Court made a decision to re-examine the case, citing errors in the original judgment.
In June 2023, the Yulin City Procuratorate made the decision to charge Guo Erwa and others with intentional murder and brought the case before the Yulin Intermediate People’s Court. Additionally, Ji Yanhua and others initiated criminal incidental civil lawsuits.
In January 2025, the Yulin Intermediate People’s Court held a trial for this case, which led to the recent sentencing.
According to the first-instance judgment, Guo Erwa was involved in robbery, escaping, intentional murder, bribery, and the charge of illegal occupation of agricultural land was not established.
During the retrial, it was found that on August 29, 1994, Guo Erwa and others premeditated a robbery on a long-distance bus from Yulin to Xi’an and forcibly robbed 11 passengers using violence, obtaining over 5,000 RMB in cash and various items. After the robbery, Guo Erwa and a group fled to the mountains to redistribute the stolen goods, with Guo Erwa acquiring over 1,300 RMB. Subsequently, some of the accomplices were captured while Guo Erwa remained at large.
On June 13, 2001, Guo was arrested and detained. During his detention at the prison in Ganquan County, on October 12, 2001, Guo persuaded a police officer named Gao to let him go run errands in Yan’an City with the promise of a large sum of money as a reward. Gao agreed, allowing Guo to escape.
The judgment indicated that after his initial crimes, Guo was reported and fled to Urumqi, Xinjiang. After learning the identity of the whistleblower, Jing, Guo threatened to deal with him. On November 6, 2002, Guo and his accomplices confronted Jing, forcibly taking him in a car. While driving back to Urumqi, Guo verbally abused and threatened Jing. Subsequently, Jing collapsed by the roadside as he was being assaulted. Guo and others then physically attacked Jing. Jing was fatally stabbed by one of the perpetrators, causing him to die due to severe blood loss.
Reportedly, due to Guo Erwa’s “paper” sentence, several public officials were criminally punished or disciplined.
Records show that multiple public officials were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one and a half to five and a half years for involvement in the “paper” sentence incident related to Guo Erwa, covering prisons, procuratorates, and other institutions due to charges of bribery and other offenses.