LOS ANGELES — A jury convicted an 87-year-old man Wednesday of murdering his wife with a hatchet and attacking her son at the couple’s home in an unincorporated county area near Pasadena, officials said.
“The jury of six women and six men deliberated about a day and a half before finding James Che Ming Lu guilty of the July 26, 2009, murder of his 55-year-old wife, Michelle, and the attempted murder of her 32-year-old son, Ji Ma Zeng,” Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Jane Robison said.
Jurors also found true the special allegation that Lu personally used a deadly weapon — a hatchet — in the crimes, officials said.
The attack took place at the couple’s home in the 100 block of South Rosemead Boulevard.
“Lu repeatedly struck his wife of nine years in the head with an ax as she lay in bed,” Robison said. “Lu then walked down the hall and tried to use the ax on her son, but the younger man managed to fend off the attack.
Lu carried out the brutal killing because “(He) was angry because he believed he spent too much money on his wife and that she spent too much time away from home working,” Robison said.
This was Lu’s second murder trial. A jury failed to reach a verdict in a previous trial.
When he returns to Los Angeles Superior Court for sentencing on Sept. 7, Lu faces the possibility of life in prison.