Shooter sentenced for mass murder at Oklahoma medical marijuana farm
KINGFISHER — A former worker at a marijuana farm has admitted to a mass shooting there in 2022.
Wu Chen, 46, pleaded guilty Friday to four counts of first-degree murder and one count of assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the assault.
His punishment was the result of a plea deal. Prosecutors had talked of seeking the death penalty if the case had gone to trial.
The farm was 15 miles west of Hennessey. It was registered and licensed with the state as a medical marijuana manufacturer. An investigation, however, determined it was operating illegally.
"This case should serve as a reminder of the dangers surrounding illegal marijuana activity in Oklahoma," Kingfisher County District Attorney Tommy Humphries said.
Chen had gone to the farm on Nov. 20, 2022, and demanded $300,000 be returned to him for his "investment," a prosecutor revealed in a legal filing when he was charged.
"The fact that it could not be handed over on a moment's notice was what precipitated the mass murder," Assistant District Attorney Austin Murrey wrote in a request for no bond.
"The defendant murdered four people in a matter of minutes, shot and wounded a fifth and took shots at, but missed, a sixth," the prosecutor wrote.
Killed were Quirong Lin, Chen He Chun, Chen He Quiang and Fang Hui Lee, according to prosecutors. Wounded was Yifei Lin.
One witness said an intruder came into a garage at the farm and shot the "boss" in the leg, an investigator reported in an arrest affidavit.
The witness, identified as Wenbo Lin, said he had only worked at the grow for 10 days.
He said the intruder "held multiple people inside the garage at gunpoint" and "demanded $300,000 within the next half hour or he was going to kill everyone in the garage," according to the affidavit.
"The 'Boss' told his girlfriend, who was inside the garage, to call her brother to get the money. As time went by, the 'Boss' was not doing very well and told the suspect to finish him off and the suspect shot the 'Boss.'
"Two males inside the garage attempted to rush the suspect and the suspect shot one of the males. The other male ran out of the garage."
Chen was arrested on Nov. 22, 2022, in Miami Beach, Florida. Why he had gone to Florida is still under investigation, prosecutors said Friday.
Through a translator, he told a judge in Florida that he feared returning to Oklahoma.
He said he was afraid he will be killed "because these people" are mafiosos, the translator quoted him as saying.
He was described in the motion for no bond as a Chinese citizen. He also spoke at his sentencing Friday through a translator.
Attorney General Gentner Drummond has repeatedly pointed to the mass shooting in public statements.
He brought it up again in January in remarks to the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee.
"The carnage of that day is but one tragic example of a failed system plagued by failing leadership," he told the committee during impeachment proceedings against Alejandro Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary.
"Throughout Oklahoma, law enforcement comes into contact daily with foreign nationals who have entered our country illegally or who remain here illegally — or both. This is all too common in Oklahoma’s illegal marijuana grow operations."
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shooter sentenced for mass murder at Oklahoma medical marijuana farm
