By Connor Adams Sheets
A Flushing man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for stabbing his roommate to death with a sword in September 2008, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
A Queens Supreme Court jury found in July that Yu Ming Liu, 49, had killed his former roommate, Francis Kuang Chun Wang, 43, with a 15-inch sword.
Liu was convicted of first-degree manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon at the trial before Justice Gregory Lasak, and was sentenced Sept. 8.
“Today’s sentence is a measure of justice for the victim in this case, who was senselessly killed by this defendant,” Brown said.
For a time, Wang rented a room in an apartment at 136-05 Sanford Ave. to Liu, and on Sept. 4, 2008, he called the police to request that Liu be removed from the premises, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Liu could not prove he legitimately lived there, so police asked him to leave. Having nowhere to go, he sat on the steps of a nearby building, and when Wang left his apartment later that day, Liu began haranguing him, called him a “little mouse” and told him he could have him deported with one phone call, according to Brown.
After Wang walked away, Liu retrieved the sword from his car and let himself into Wang’s home with the key he still had and waited for Wang to return. When Wang came back to his apartment, Liu slashed him on the body numerous times and stabbed him three times, Brown said.
Liu then called 911 and said he had killed someone and waited in front of the apartment building for police to arrive. The sword was found next to Wang’s body.
He made statements to police recounting what he had done, and DNA tests revealed that blood found on Liu’s clothing and hands was Wang’s.
Liu faced up to 25 years in prison for the crimes.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
