(AP) – Jurors have convicted a former University of Illinois doctoral student in the slaying of a visiting scholar from China who was abducted at a bus stop as she headed to sign an off-campus apartment lease.
Christensen looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the guilty verdict was announced. Yingying Zhang’s body was never found.
The guilty verdict Monday was expected because Brendt Christensen’s attorneys acknowledged from the start that he raped and stabbed Yingying Zhang in June 2017. Prosecutors say he beat her to death with a baseball bat and decapitated her.
The case now heads to sentencing to determine whether Christensen should receive the death penalty. Judge James Shadid said that phase will begin July 8.
