ATLANTA — The suspect accused of fatally shooting four women in two different Atlanta spas pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Fulton County court.
Robert Aaron Long, 22, has already pleaded guilty to killing four others in a Cherokee County spa and is serving a life sentence. He appeared briefly in court Tuesday morning to formally enter his plea on additional charges in Fulton County, where District Attorney Fani Willis has announced her intent to seek the death penalty.
Long was arrested March 16, the same day he is accused of shooting and killing eight people, including six Asian women, at three metro Atlanta spas. According to Cherokee prosecutors, Long began his shooting rampage at Young’s Asian Massage near Woodstock, where he first paid for a service before opening fire. Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Delaina Yaun, 33, and Paul Michels, 54, were killed. A fifth victim, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, was critically injured.
After the shootings at Young’s, authorities say Long drove to Atlanta, where he’s accused of killing Yong Ae Yue, 63, Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, at two spas on Piedmont Road.
Within hours of the March shootings, Long was captured in South Georgia and charged with four counts of murder in both Cherokee and Fulton counties.
In late July, Long pleaded guilty in Cherokee was given four consecutive life sentences, plus 35 years, without the possibility of parole. If the case had gone to trial in Cherokee, District Attorney Shannon Wallace said she planned to pursue the death penalty. But the victims’ families and survivors wanted swift justice, Wallace said.
Additionally, prosecutors were prepared to argue that Long committed a hate crime when he targeted women. Wallace said investigators found no evidence of racial motivation, however, Long told investigators his actions weren’t racially motivated and Asian American people who have known him told prosecutors they had not seen racial bias from him, authorities said.
Long told the judge in the Cherokee case that he initially planned to kill himself because of the shame he felt over what he called his obsessive addiction to pornography. He changed his mind while sitting in the parking lot of Young’s, Long said in court.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis plans to pursue the death penalty against Long, who also faces sentencing enhancements under Georgia’s new hate crimes law on the basis of both gender and race.
Willis previously disclosed that Long’s defense team reached out in hopes of making a deal. She said she will continue to pursue a death sentence for Long, saying her decision was made “with the complete support of the families.”
Long is next scheduled to appear in court Nov. 23.
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