Jury finds Bolden guilty of murder

Javier Bolden, the man charged with the murders of two USC graduate students, was found guilty on all counts on Monday at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Bolden, 22, was one of two men arrested for the 2012 shootings of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, both 23-year-old engineering students at USC. Bryan Barnes, the other perpetrator, pled guilty to the murders in February and was sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole.

The guilty verdict came after nearly two days of jury deliberations. Judge Stephen A. Marcus of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County presided over the six-day trial. The jury, which consisted of seven women and five men, found the defendant guilty of two counts of first degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of assault with a firearm. The latter convictions referred to a separate incident in the Vermont Square neighborhood of Los Angeles, where Bolden entered a banquet hall and opened fire, seriously injuring two people. The Vermont Square incident took place in February 2012, about two months before the murders of the USC graduate students.

Though Bolden did not himself fire the gun that killed the two students, he is equally liable under the felony murder law since he participated in the robbery alongside Barnes. Furthermore, cell phone recordings exchanged between Bolden and Barnes indicate Bolden’s participation in, and acknowledgement of, the killings. Bolden admitted he shot at the two students to a police informant who was disguised as a cellmate. The informant recorded Bolden discussing how he and Barnes had planned to steal the students’ BMW automobile.

Defense attorney Andrew Goldman claimed Bolden exaggerated his involvement to appear tough to his cellmate. Daniel Akemon, the deputy district attorney in charge of prosecuting Bolden, however, argued that the details of Bolden’s statement to the police and the details he revealed while speaking to the informant showed that he had knowledge of the crime.

Bolden displayed little outward emotion throughout the reading of the verdict as he sat next to Goldman. His mother, who repeatedly declined releasing any comments to media members after the trial concluded, was seated with another family member in the second row.

Marcus adjourned the court by thanking all participants and setting Bolden’s sentencing date to be Nov. 17, with a 15-day grace period to reschedule.