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Man convicted for 1st-degree murder
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Posted on Jan 31 2005
The Superior Court yesterday convicted a man of first-degree murder and robbery charges over the grisly killing of a Chinese businessman inside his San Jose karaoke bar nearly six years ago.
Associate judge Juan T. Lizama also convicted Franklin Cabrera Cepeda Jr. of aggravated assault and battery, assault with a dangerous weapon, and conspiracy.
Lizama affirmed the verdict handed down by a six-man jury after a weeklong trial.
Cepeda clenched his fist, as he stood beside lawyer Steven Pixley after the reading of the verdict. When he walked to the courtroom’s gallery, he hugged some relatives, who witnessed the proceeding.
Lizama gave the Probation office until March 17 to come up with a presentence investigation report. The judge set Cepeda’s sentencing on March 30.
He lauded the prosecution, led by assistant attorney general Rebecca Warfield, citing the panel’s professionalism in handling the case. He also lauded Pixley for displaying proper demeanor in court in defending Cepeda.
Cepeda’s conviction stemmed from the killing of trader Rong Zhou inside the latter’s Yellow House Karaoke and robbing the businessman of cash.
In her closing arguments Friday, Warfield narrated how Cepeda and George Ilo brutally killed the businessman, whose multiple stab wounds include three chest wounds, two of which pierced his heart.
Zhou reportedly refused to give the defendants money when the latter demanded it. When the trader grappled with Ilo for the knife, Cepeda hit Zhou with a baseball bat in the head. Ilo then stabbed the trader and backed out, after which Cepeda took the weapon and repeatedly stabbed Zhou. Cepeda took the trader’s wallet containing cash and left the victim lying in a pool of blood.
“Some secrets just won’t keep,” Warfield said. Some of Cepeda’s relatives, including his father, testified against him during the trial.
The fatal incident happened on March 1, 1999. Police investigation disclosed that Ilo and Cepeda were only 22 when they killed Zhou.
Ilo entered into a plea agreement with the government before the trial.
Cepeda had served jail time at a federal prison facility in Los Angeles, California, for his conviction on mail fraud by the Guam federal district court.
