Virginia Tech Decapitator Sentenced

The man who chopped off the head of a woman with a kitchen knife in a Virginia Tech campus cafe has been sentenced to life in prison.

Haiyang Zhu attacked and decapitated 22 year old Xin Yang in January 2009, Yang had recently arrived in America from Beijing and began studying at Virginia Tech, home of the infamous massacre carried out by Seung-Hui Cho in 2007.

On 21st January 2009 Haiyang Zhu and Xin Yang were both sat quietly in a crowded campus cafe when Haiyang attacked his companion for no apparent reason. Witnesses say the pair had not been arguing and the attack seemed totally unpredictable. Security officers who arrived at the scene found Haiyang sat with Yang’s decapitated head in his hands.

Haiyang pleaded guilty to first degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. During his trial the prosecution claimed that Haiyang murdered his classmate because she spurned his advances.

Speaking in court through an interpreter Haiyang offered his “sincere apology and deepest remorse” for what he had done.