SiPort shooting

Last updated
2008 SiPort murders
Location Santa Clara, California, United States
DateNovember 14, 2008;14 years ago (2008-11-14)
3:00 p.m. (PST UTC−08:00)
Attack type
Shooting
Weapons 9mm caliber handgun
Deaths3
Injured0
PerpetratorJing Hua Wu
Motive Termination of employment
VerdictWu convicted

On November 14, 2008, three people were fatally shot at the office of SiPort, a start-up company in Santa Clara, California. [1] Jing Hua Wu was arrested and convicted.

Contents

Shooting

SiPort CEO Sid Agrawal, human resources manager Marilyn Lewis, and vice president of operations Brian Pugh were all shot fatally in the head. It was one of the deadliest workplace killings in Silicon Valley history. [2] [3] [4]

Perpetrator

Wu (born 1961–62) was born in China, and was a former employee of SiPort. He was distraught over losing his job at the company.

Jing Hua Wu was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and special circumstances of using a firearm, and was represented by high-profile defense attorney Tony Serra. On March 8, 2013, Wu was found guilty of all charges. On August 2, 2013, Wu was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, and an additional 75 years. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan White</span> American politician and assassin (1946–1985)

Daniel James White was an American politician who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on November 27, 1978, at City Hall. White was convicted of manslaughter for the deaths of Milk and Moscone. White served five years of a seven-year prison sentence. Less than two years after his release, he returned to San Francisco, and later died by suicide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Men's Colony</span>

California Men's Colony (CMC) is a male-only state prison located northwest of the city of San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo County, California, along the central California coast approximately halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">California State Prison, Corcoran</span> Prison in California

California State Prison, Corcoran (COR) is a male-only state prison located in the city of Corcoran, in Kings County, California. It is also known as Corcoran State Prison, CSP-C, CSP-COR, CSP-Corcoran, and Corcoran I. The facility is just north of the newer California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Mullin</span> American serial killer (1947–2022)

Herbert William Mullin was an American serial killer who killed 13 people in California in the early 1970s. He confessed to the killings, which he claimed prevented earthquakes. In 1973, after a trial to determine whether he was legally insane or culpable, he was convicted of two murders in the first-degree and nine in the second-degree, and sentenced to life imprisonment. During his imprisonment, he was denied parole eight times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Beardslee</span> American murderer (1943–2005)

Donald Jay Beardslee was an American serial killer who murdered three women. While on parole for killing a woman in Missouri in 1969, Beardslee murdered two more women in California. He was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in San Quentin State Prison in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Dragon massacre</span> 1977 gang-related shooting in the Chinatown district of San Francisco, California, USA

The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Serra</span> American lawyer (born 1934)

Joseph Tony Serra is an American civil rights attorney, activist and tax resister from San Francisco.

In the United States, life imprisonment is amongst the most severe punishments provided by law, depending on the state, and second only to the death penalty. According to a 2013 study, 1 of every 20,000 inhabitants of the U.S. were imprisoned for life as of 2012. Many U.S. states can release a convict on parole after a decade or more has passed, but in California, people sentenced to life imprisonment can normally apply for parole after seven years. The laws in the United States categorize life sentences as "determinate life sentences" or "indeterminate life sentences," the latter indicating the possibility of an abridged sentence, usually through the process of parole. For example, sentences of "15 years to life," "25 years to life," or "life with mercy" are called "indeterminate life sentences", while a sentence of "life without the possibility of parole" or "life with no mercy" is called a "determinate life sentence". The potential for parole is not assured but discretionary, making it an indeterminate sentence. Even if a sentence explicitly denies the possibility of parole, government officials may have the power to grant an amnesty to reprieve, or to commute a sentence to time served.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Carpenter</span> American serial killer on death row

David Joseph Carpenter, a.k.a. The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He attacked at least ten individuals with two attempted victims, Steven Haertle and Lois Rinna, surviving. Carpenter used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings, as a .44 caliber handgun was used in the killing of Edda Kane on Mount Tamalpais.

Mary Elizabeth Quigley was an American murder victim whose death was a cold case for nearly 30 years before it was finally solved.

Laurie Smith was the 28th Sheriff of Santa Clara County, California, serving from 1998 until her early retirement in 2022 when under indictment for corruption. She was the first female County Sheriff in the history of the state.

Amongst the Asian Boyz, also known as ABZ, AB-26, or ABZ Crips, are a street gang based in Southern California. They were founded in the late 1980s as part of efforts of protection for Cambodian refugees from the more numerous American gangs in their localities. According to the FBI, the gang is predominantly Southeast Asian-American, of which Cambodian account for their majority, while Vietnamese and other Southeast Asians comprise sizable numbers. With approximately 12,000 members, many are known to have enlisted in the U.S. military through which some were able to use their position to traffic drugs. According to the FBI's 2009 National Gang Threat Assessment, the Asian Boyz are active in 28 different cities, in 14 different states across the U.S.

In the United States, the law for murder varies by jurisdiction. In many US jurisdictions there is a hierarchy of acts, known collectively as homicide, of which first-degree murder and felony murder are the most serious, followed by second-degree murder and, in a few states, third-degree murder, which in other states is divided into voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter such as reckless homicide and negligent homicide, which are the least serious, and ending finally in justifiable homicide, which is not a crime. However, because there are at least 52 relevant jurisdictions, each with its own criminal code, this is a considerable simplification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murders of Ming Qu and Ying Wu</span> On April 11, 2012 in Los Angeles, California, US

The murders of Ming Qu and Ying Wu occurred on April 11, 2012, when the two Chinese graduate students were shot to death when sitting in their 2003 BMW parked one mile outside of the University of Southern California (USC) campus in Los Angeles, California. It sparked safety concerns around the campus in South Los Angeles, an area notorious for its history of crime-ridden neighborhoods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony and Nathaniel Cook</span> American criminal brothers

Anthony Cook and Nathaniel Cook are American serial killer brothers who committed a series of at least 9 rapes and murders of mostly couples in Toledo, Ohio, area between 1973 and 1981. Their guilt was established in the late 1990s thanks to DNA profiling, after which both brothers were convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryan Scott Blinston</span> American serial killer

Ryan Scott Blinston is an American serial killer and arsonist who murdered three women in Oroville, California, between May and June 2020. His modus operandi typically consisted of murdering clients he worked for at his tree-trimming job. Blinston was caught by a SWAT team while attempting to murder another man with a hatchet. He was later found guilty of the murders and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Alexander Hernandez is an American serial killer who murdered five people during a series of drive-by shootings in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area of California between March and August 2014. He targeted random people and dogs, murdering five people, injuring 11 others, and killing two dogs. He was later convicted of the crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

References

  1. "Despite murders, SiPort completes its radio chip for Microsoft's Zune HD media player". VentureBeat. September 15, 2009.
  2. "Santa Clara: Fired SiPort engineer found guilty of first degree murder in slaying of three bosses". San Jose Mercury News. March 8, 2013.
  3. "With New CEO, SiPort Tries To Put Triple Homicide Behind It". Wall Street Journal. February 24, 2012.
  4. "Jing Hua Wu Convicted; Silicon Valley Engineer Killed 3 Bosses Who Laid Him Off". Huffington Post . March 8, 2012.
  5. Former Santa Clara Tech Engineer Gets Life Without Parole + 75 Years For Killing 3 Co-Workers, CBS News, August 2, 2013, Retrieved on December 9, 2015.