A Los Angeles area man who officials say killed a couple and burned their bodies and vehicles has been charged with murder, kidnapping, arson and burglary.
Huangting Gong, 30, of Glendale, is accused of killing Jing Li and Kuanlun Wang, both 37, to whom he allegedly owed $80,000, in the Southern California desert on Oct. 12 and then stealing nearly $250,000 of luxury watches, handbags and bags. clothes from their home.
Gong was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on November 5 while returning from Seattle. He was booked into the Orange County Jail, where he was being held without bail, police and prosecutors said.
“No one deserves the fate of being executed and then set on fire in the middle of the desert,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement Tuesday.
Spitzer’s office said the charge was filed with enhancements related to “special circumstances,” meaning if convicted, Gong faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Attempts to find Gong’s contact information were unsuccessful. It was not clear Tuesday evening whether he has retained his counsel. The Orange County Public Defender’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors did not indicate why Gong Wang owed $80,000. They said he shot Wang in the head on Oct. 12, put the body in Wang’s Tesla and drove it to the home Wang shared with Li in the Orange County city of Brea, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
There, Gong hit Li with a hammer and demanded the code to unlock her phone, the district attorney’s office alleged.
He used Li’s Tesla to take her to the San Bernardino Desert, where he shot her and burned her body, he claimed. He returned to the couple’s home to retrieve Wang’s body, drive to the Riverside County desert and burn it, the district attorney’s office said.
Gong then drove each victim’s Tesla to separate desert areas and burned them, the district attorney’s office said.
He returned to the couple’s home and stole $250,000 worth of goods, including watches, handbags, shoes and clothing, the district attorney’s office alleged.
“Depravity does not adequately describe the callousness involved in killing a human being and then driving around in the victim’s car with his body inside to carry out the rest of his plan,” Spitzer said in the statement Tuesday.
Gong was expected in California Superior Court in Santa Ana for a hearing on December 2.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
