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On December 14, 2020, the Intermediate People's Court of Songyuan City, Jilin Province, rendered a first-instance judgment, finding the defendant Sun Li guilty of intentional homicide and sentencing him to death with deprivation of political rights for life. He was also ordered to pay civil damages totaling over 73,000 yuan in direct economic losses to the victim's family. Sun Li did not appeal after the verdict was announced.
Disturbed by noise
Sun Li, born in 1990, is a resident of Qian'an County, Jilin Province. His difficult upbringing contributed to his introverted personality; as an adult, he had few friends, only interacting with his childhood friend and old neighbor, Hu Jin. At 18, Sun Li studied car repair, but gave up halfway through because he couldn't stand his master's temper. Later, he worked for a security escort company for six months, but found it too strenuous and quit. After that, he refused to work outside the home again, spending his days at home playing online games.
After Sun Li's parents divorced, he lived with his mother, Zhou Yan. Zhou Yan worked as a sales clerk in a supermarket, and her meager income was barely enough for the mother and son to make ends meet. In the latter half of 2017, their house was demolished for redevelopment. Zhou Yan did not choose resettlement housing but instead received the demolition compensation. She rented a three-bedroom apartment in the county town, with the mother and son each living in one room. They divided the master bedroom into two smaller rooms and rented them out to two young men. In this way, Zhou Yan and Sun Li saved nearly half of their rent.
In the latter half of 2019, the owner of apartment 502 upstairs converted the apartment into a shared rental, attracting five tenants, including a couple. The five people worked at staggered times, and due to the poor sound insulation of the floor, noises would occur periodically. Sun Li also frequently heard loud laughter and conversation, even in the early hours of the morning.
Sun Li played games all day long, and over time, he reached the "Noble Platinum" rank in the game. Newbie players would ask him to boost their ranks, and Sun Li would earn some pocket money this way. He learned that game boosting was quite lucrative, but to get a steady stream of business, he needed to reach several more ranks. He hoped that one day he could reach the "Supreme Master" rank and "achieve a life-changing turnaround." Zhou Yan asked people to introduce her son to several jobs, but Sun Li refused them all.
Gamers need to concentrate, and Sun Li found the noise from upstairs frequently distracting him. He rarely interacted with people, so he asked his mother to go upstairs and talk to her. Zhou Yan said she didn't hear any noise from upstairs and refused to go. Sun Li had no choice but to endure it.
On January 19, 2020, two tenants in Sun Li's apartment forfeited their deposit, equivalent to one month's rent, and moved out early. Sun Li concluded that "the noise from upstairs was disturbing the tenants' rest." The tenants' departure meant increased rent expenses for his family, which meant Sun Li would lose the money he used to buy in-game items. Unable to tolerate it any longer, he decided to go upstairs alone to negotiate.
He knocked on the door of room 502 a few times. A woman asked through the door, "Who are you? What do you want?" Sun Li said, "Could you please keep your voice down?" The woman replied, "I'm not making any noise!" Seeing that she didn't open the door, Sun Li left dejectedly.
A month later, Sun Li was giving a game boosting service to a novice player. The player promised Sun Li 2,000 yuan if he could get 100 LP (League Points). For Sun Li's boosting business, this was an unprecedented "huge sum." He even forgot to eat, focusing all his attention on the game. At a crucial moment, a loud door slammed down upstairs, and Sun Li's hand trembled-the character he was boosting had been killed by the enemy.
Enraged, Sun Li stormed upstairs and pounded on the door of apartment 502. A man in his thirties opened the door and demanded angrily, "Why are you banging on the door?" Sun Li said, "Could you...could you keep the noise down? It's disturbing the downstairs neighbors." The man replied, "No way! There's not a sound!" Just as Sun Li was about to argue, four or five more people came out. Sun Li feigned weakness, saying, "Sorry to bother you!" and sheepishly turned and went back downstairs.
Arriving at the door with a knife - theory
The noise from upstairs was like a thorn stuck in Sun Li's throat, impossible to remove. His resentment towards apartment 502 grew daily. One day in early May 2020, Sun Li heard constant footsteps coming from upstairs, as if there were many people. Unable to bear it any longer, he used a mop handle to violently pound the ceiling.
Two days later, the landlord upstairs knocked on Zhou Yan's door and asked, "Why does your son keep saying there's noise upstairs? I've spoken with each of the tenants, and they all say they haven't made any noise. There must be some misunderstanding." Hearing the commotion, Sun Li came out of his room and said, "It's okay, I won't knock on the door anymore."
On July 4, 2020, Sun Li played games all day. Around 10 p.m., he felt very tired and went to bed. A short while after closing his eyes, he suddenly heard a loud noise coming from upstairs. Startled, he sat up, grabbed a chair, placed it on the bed, and then stood on it, banging on the ceiling and shouting, "Don't disturb other people's rest!" Feeling the noise from upstairs was getting louder, Sun Li decided to go upstairs to confront them. Thinking there were many people upstairs, he grabbed a knife.
Sun Li rushed to the door of room 502, knocked, and placed his hands behind his back, gripping the knife tightly. Seeing that it was the man in his thirties he had spoken to before, Sun Li said, "It's so late, don't make too much noise and disturb the neighbors." The man, standing in the doorway, retorted, "I've never made any noise in my house, why do you always come here to cause trouble?" To the man's left was a woman, and behind him stood two more women. One of the women muttered, "This guy must be hallucinating!"
Sun Li was furious and shouted, "This matter must be resolved today!" The woman to the man's left said, "Stop arguing with him, close the door!" Suddenly, the man kicked Sun Li in the left hip and turned to go inside.
Sun Li felt a rush of blood to his head and stabbed the man in the back with his knife. The man turned around, and the knife immediately pierced his chest, causing him to stagger and fall to the ground. The three women were terrified. Sun Li wildly brandished the knife, repeatedly stabbing the woman next to the man. The other two women screamed "Murder!" and retreated into the house. Sun Li rushed in to chase after them, injuring both women, who then ran into the south-facing bedroom and blocked the door.
At that moment, a man and a woman lay on the ground by the door, bleeding profusely. Sun Li returned to their side and, like a madman, began stabbing them wildly with his knife. Then, Sun Li kicked open the door to the south-facing bedroom, ignoring their pleas for mercy, and killed them. He threw the blood-stained knife on the ground, left room 502, and casually closed the door behind him.
Back downstairs, Sun Li washed her hands and contacted her only friend, Hu Jin, via WeChat, sending a voice message: "I've killed someone, please call the police." Hu Jin replied with a questioning emoji, asking, "Are you out of your mind? Are you kidding me?" Sun Li answered, "It's true. My phone won't make any calls." Half-believing, half-doubting, Hu Jin quickly drove to the supermarket and picked up Zhou Yan, who was at work, to take her home.
After entering her home, Zhou Yan confirmed that her son had killed someone and, trembling, dialed the police.
Police officers quickly arrived at the scene and investigated. All four victims had been stabbed in vital areas; the male victim had more than 10 stab wounds, and the three female victims all died from stab wounds to the chest.
The heinous crime is unforgivable
Sun Li confessed that he was playing video games before the incident when he heard noises from upstairs, which he found very disturbing. To defend himself, he took a knife and went upstairs to confront the noise. The offensive words spoken by the other party, and the kick he received from the man, caused his pent-up anger to erupt. After stabbing the man, he thought that murder was a capital offense, so he decided to go all the way and also killed the three women. Sun Li said he had no grudge against the man and the three women, but once he started using the knife, he couldn't stop.
Police investigation confirmed that the deceased were Xu Ting, Wang Shu, Liu Yanan, and Xu Fang. Xu Fang did not live there; she came to chat with her colleague Liu Yanan that evening. Xu Ting and Wang Shu were in a romantic relationship. Neighbors of rooms 401 and 501 testified that they did not notice any unusual noises or commotion from room 502. Sun Li stated that he did not have a mental illness, and there was no family history of mental illness. An autopsy determined that Sun Li had no history of drug use and did not exhibit auditory or visual hallucinations.
On October 9, 2020, the Songyuan City People's Procuratorate of Jilin Province filed a public prosecution against Sun Li, accusing him of murdering four people with a knife over a trivial matter. The prosecution alleged that the methods were cruel and the circumstances he committed were heinous, and that he should be held criminally liable for intentional homicide. Sun Li voluntarily surrendered himself to the police and confessed truthfully, constituting self-surrender.
When Sun Li was brought to the dock, his facial expression was cold. When recounting the incident, he spoke as if it were someone else's story. He claimed he now only wanted to die, but still tried to defend himself: the upstairs neighbors made noise every few days; before the incident, he went upstairs to argue with them, the woman used harsh language, and the man kicked him. "The other party was at fault first; I killed them impulsively in a fit of anger." His defense attorney argued that the case stemmed from a neighborhood dispute, Sun Li was a first-time offender, had surrendered himself to the police, pleaded guilty, and accepted punishment; therefore, they requested leniency.
The families of the four victims sat in the gallery, weeping uncontrollably. They each filed a civil suit, seeking a total of over 2 million yuan in damages.
The court, after hearing the case, held that the defendant, Sun Li, committed intentional homicide by stabbing four people over a trivial matter, and the charges brought by the public prosecutor were established. Although Sun Li voluntarily surrendered himself to the police after committing the crime and truthfully confessed to his actions, constituting self-surrender, his methods of killing were particularly cruel, the circumstances particularly heinous, and the consequences particularly serious. Therefore, despite being a first-time offender, surrendering himself, and pleading guilty, this was insufficient to warrant a lighter sentence. The court did not support the defense counsel's argument for a lighter sentence based on the above reasons. The court also ruled that the economic losses and funeral expenses caused to the plaintiffs in the incidental civil suit by Sun Li's crimes should be compensated according to law, and that the other claims of the plaintiffs in the incidental civil suit lacked legal basis and were therefore not supported.
On December 14, 2020, the Intermediate People's Court of Songyuan City, Jilin Province, rendered a first-instance judgment, finding the defendant Sun Li guilty of intentional homicide and sentencing him to death with deprivation of political rights for life. He was also ordered to pay civil damages totaling over 73,000 yuan in direct economic losses to the victim's family. Sun Li did not appeal after the verdict was announced.
(Except for Sun and Li, all other names in this article are pseudonyms.)