Wife Gets Life for Killing Husband’s Mistress, Son

Breaking down at one point with repeated sobs of “It’s not me, it’s not me,” Li-Yun “Lisa” Peng was sentenced Friday to life in prison without parole for killing her tycoon husband’s mistress and the woman’s infant boy who was born of the affair.

Peng’s emotional outburst marked a dramatic end to the 1993 love triangle murder case that captivated an audience on both sides of the Pacific.

Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan received more than 400 letters before Friday’s sentencing, many seeking leniency for Peng. Those included a plea from Peng’s husband, who wrote of her patience in enduring his “lost journey.” Several jurors who convicted Peng, some of whom attended the sentencing, also urged leniency.

In her own letter, Lisa Peng, a Taiwanese national, described herself as a “poor unlucky woman who has been forgotten by God.”

Relatives of the victim, 25-year-old Ranbing “Jennifer” Ji said Friday that they were counting on a harsh sentence.

“This crime is too ferocious, too cruel,” said Zhuo-Chuan Ji, the victim’s father, speaking through an interpreter. “She would not even let the 5-month-old infant go. What kind of guilt could a little kid have?”

Ji was found dead Aug. 18, 1993, on a sofa in her Mission Viejo apartment with 19 stab wounds. Her son, Kevin, lay in his crib with a T-shirt stuffed in his mouth.

The prosecutor contended that Peng ambushed Ji in a rage over the victim’s affair with Peng’s husband, a 53-year-old wealthy Taiwanese businessman who runs an international electronics firm.

DNA testing of Lisa Peng’s saliva linked her to a bite mark on the victim’s left arm, and the prosecution case also included incriminating statements she made to her husband.

Judge Ryan, while citing Peng’s exemplary life before the killings, said he could not justify deviating from the sentence required by the jury’s verdict.