11:00am | A Long Beach judge sentenced a 22-year old Costa Mesa man to 26 years to life in state prison yesterday, for strangling his ex-girlfriend to death in 2009.
Jonathan Huynh was convicted of the first-degree murder of Kate Su Yi, a 20-year old student at Cal State Long Beach on March 31, 2009. The two were dating until Su Yi ended the relationship, and prosecutors said that Huynh strangled her to death and then stabbed her with a knife because she broke up with him.
The stab wounds were determined to be non-fatal, but jurors still found that the allegation of personal use of a knife were true. It took the jury just over one hour to deliver the guilty verdict.
The Press-Telegram reports that Huynh smirked and seemed amused throughout the trial, testifying that the victim accidentally died during rough sex. It was the third different version of the story he told police, after initially claiming that he wasn’t present when Su Yi died.
Su Yi’s roommate discovered the body in the closet of their apartment, two days after the murder. Long Beach Superior Court Judge Tomson Ong ordered Huynh to pay more than $15,000 in restitution to Su Yi’s family, as well as $7,500 to the state Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.