Elizabeth Zhong murder: Chinese millionaire Fang Sun jailed for more than 18 years
- The millionaire investor stabbed to death Auckland business partner Elizabeth Zhong amid a heated court battle over control of their failing company
- ‘Your offending involved calculated planning,’ the judge said, describing the murder as ‘brutal and callous to a very high degree’
A millionaire investor from China who stabbed to death Auckland business partner Elizabeth Zhong amid a heated court battle over control of their failing company will have to serve at least 18 years and six months of his life sentence before he can apply for parole.
Fang Sun returned to the High Court at Auckland on Tuesday – two months after a jury found him guilty of murder – as Justice Neil Campbell determined his sentence.
“Your offending involved calculated planning,” the judge said, describing the murder as “brutal and callous to a very high degree”.
“It was anything but impulse,” he said.
“You left Ms Zhong without any dignity, even in death.”
During a six-week trial that lasted from April to June, prosecutors said Sun believed Zhong had misappropriated money from their business, Sunbow Ltd, and he blamed her for causing more than NZ$26 million worth of financial losses to him and his family. The two were once so close he at times lived in a guest bedroom of her house, but he would later tell a private investigator that she had ruined his life.
