Inset: Monica Moon Lee, one of the women killed by Jianchun Li (Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary). Background: Police at the California assisted living facility where Jianchun Li murdered two residents (KTLA).
A California caregiver is headed to prison for murdering a pair of nursing home residents in a span of 30 minutes, strangling them both in the same way using a plastic bag and electrical tape.
Jianchun Li, 44, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after turning a bathroom at the Happy Homes Care assisted living facility in Diamond Bar into his own personal killing ground.
Li murdered two women inside the bathroom — Monica Moon Lee, 75, and Hee Sook Park, 83 — in June 2023. He "ushered" Moon, who used a walker and had dementia, into the bathroom first shortly before 7 a.m. and then killed Park 30 minutes later in the same manner, according to prosecutors.
"[Li] placed a plastic bag over [Moon's] head, wrapped electrical tape around her neck, and strangled her," the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office explained in an Aug. 28, press release announcing Li's conviction.
"Thirty minutes later, Li then took Hee Sook Park … to the same bathroom and murdered her in the same manner."
Li was working an overnight shift at Happy Homes Care when he committed the slayings. Emergency responders pronounced both women dead at the scene.
A Los Angeles County jury convicted Li of the murders on Aug. 20. A week later, jurors rejected his defense of not guilty by reason of insanity.
"Three years ago, Monica Moon Lee and Hee Sook Park's lives were brutally taken by Jianchun Li, the very person expected to keep them safe," District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said in a statement. "I thank the jury for holding Li responsible and finding him sane when he made the decision to kill two vulnerable women who were entrusted to his care."
Hochman added, "We hope this verdict brings a measure of closure to the victims' loved ones and the Diamond Bar community. Justice was served and Li will be held fully accountable for his horrific and senseless crimes."