{"id":245324,"date":"2022-11-28T16:39:21","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T22:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=245324"},"modified":"2022-11-28T17:10:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T23:10:09","slug":"river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/","title":{"rendered":"River Rock Casino Loan Shark Killer Gets Life Sentence Reduced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, a British Columbia gambler sentenced to life in 2009 for the murder of a woman working as an illegal loan shark saw his sentence commuted.<\/p>\n

\"Rong
Rong Lilly Li, bottom left, was a loan shark and also a registered employee at the River Rock Casino, main image, in Richmond. (Image: Richmond RCMP\/Great Canadian Gaming)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A jury of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver took two days of deliberations to reduce Chu Ming Feng\u2019s<\/a> sentence by three years. That means he will be eligible for parole in 2028.<\/p>\n

The jury had been asked to consider Feng\u2019s good behavior since his incarceration and his expressions of remorse. But it was his willingness to admit full responsibility for the first time for the killing of Rong Lilly Li, 41, a single mother, on May 26, 2006, that swayed the jury toward leniency.<\/p>\n

Murdered for $2,500<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Feng and an accomplice, Guo Wei Liang, killed Li after luring her into a hired minivan from the front entrance of the River Rock Casino<\/a> in Richmond, Greater Vancouver.<\/p>\n

The pair believed she would be carrying up to C$300,000 (US$226,000) in her purse. Instead, they found just C$500 (US$376) in cash and C$2,000 (US$1,500) in casino chips.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Li, who was a low-level River Rock employee in addition to working for a local loan-sharking gang, was strangled to death with Guo’s belt shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n

\n

Feng pulled the belt with all his strength as Li begged for her life, as lawyers for the Canadian government reminded jurors last week. The duo buried her body a day later at nearby Jericho Beach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At his trial 13 years ago, and at his 2011 appeal, Feng blamed his accomplice for coercing him into committing the crime. He claimed that Guo had given him a bottle of water in the van and said he believed something in the water made him act out of character.<\/p>\n

At his trial, prosecutors branded his \u201cmagic murder water theory\u201d as \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guo didn\u2019t hang around to tell his side of the story. He disappeared after the murder and it\u2019s unclear whether he is still alive.<\/p>\n

\u2018Just a Lie\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last week in court, Feng broke down in tears, and admitted the intoxicating water story was \u201cjust a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told the jury he had become addicted to gambling while working with Guo at a fish market after moving to Canada from Guangdong, China. He added that he hoped to earn a C$150,000 cut of the expected spoils and admitted it was likely Li would be killed.<\/p>\n

I want to say sorry to the victim. Secondly, I want to say sorry to her daughter, because I killed her mom,\u201d Feng told the court, as reported by business news site Biv.com<\/em>. \u201cShe’s without her mom, growing up. She might hate me. I cannot stop her from hating me. But if I can, I would ask for [her to] forgive me.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later, jurors heard a victim-impact statement from Li\u2019s daughter, Ahi Yan Chen, who was a teenager when her mother was murdered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Feng’s actions have caused me so much pain,\u201d Chen wrote. \u201cHe took the most important person from me. This man was sentenced by a judge for the murder of my mom, and I do not believe that he should be able to apply for parole until he has served his sentence that was imposed on him by the courts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, a British Columbia gambler sentenced to life in 2009 for the murder of a woman working as an illegal loan shark saw his sentence commuted. A jury of the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver took two days of deliberations to reduce Chu Ming Feng\u2019s sentence by three years. That means he will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":243176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[83717,83917,83715],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRiver Rock Casino Loan Shark Killer Gets Life Sentence Reduced<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chu Ming Feng gets three years lopped off life sentence after taking full responsibility for murder of River Rock Casino loan shark.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"River Rock Casino Loan Shark Killer Gets Life Sentence Reduced\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chu Ming Feng gets three years lopped off life sentence after taking full responsibility for murder of River Rock Casino loan shark.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-28T22:39:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-28T23:10:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Untitled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"741\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/\",\"name\":\"River Rock Casino Loan Shark Killer Gets Life Sentence Reduced\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Untitled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-28T22:39:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-28T23:10:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Chu Ming Feng gets three years lopped off life sentence after taking full responsibility for murder of River Rock Casino loan shark.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/river-rock-casino-loan-shark-killer-gets-life-sentence-reduced\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Untitled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Untitled.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":741,\"caption\":\"Rong Lilly Li, bottom left, was a loan shark and also a registered employee at the River Rock Casino, main image, in Richmond. 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