At his murder trial this summer, Beong Kwun Cho claimed he was doing his childhood friend a favor when he shot him in the back of his head on the side of a deserted street in Anaheim. Jurors appeared to accept his tale, sparing Cho of a murder charge and instead finding him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Scott Simmons said Friday that Cho made the deliberate choice to kill his friend, execution-style. At trial, the prosecutor argued to jurors that even if Lee was suicidal, Cho was guilty of premeditated murder. Goethals said the mitigating and aggravating circumstances in the case were about evenly balanced, and said he elected to sentence Cho to the mid-range prison term.

Source: Los Angeles Times September 23, 2016 18:58 UTC