Death sentence upheld for notorious female serial killer
Lao Rongzhi stands trial at the High People's Court in Jiangxi Province.
A higher court in Jiangxi Province upheld the death sentence for Lao Rongzhi, who was convicted of a series of murders, robberies and kidnappings which caused seven deaths and shocked the nation.
The High People's Court in Jiangxi Province rejected Lao's appeal and upheld the original sentence of the Intermediate People's Court in Nanchang, it announced today.
The court rejected Lao and her lawyer's claims that she played a minor role in the series of crimes and only assisted her boyfriend Fa Ziying, who was caught for the killings in 1999 and executed that year.
It said these claims were not consistent with facts and lacked legal basis. The evidence was solid and sufficient and the death sentence was appropriate.
Lao was found guilty of conspiring with Fa to commit four counts of robbery, kidnapping and murder in Nanchang City, Jiangxi Province, Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and Hefei City, Anhui Province, from 1996 to 1999, the Intermediate People's Court in Nanchang announced in September 2021.
The notorious femme fatale targeted victims while providing services at entertainment venues and had clear divisions of work with Fa while conducting the atrocities, the court said.
Lao fled Hefei in 1999 and used false identities while on the run for two decades. She was arrested by police in Xiamen, Fujian Province, on November 28, 2019.
