ATLANTA — Robert Aaron Long, currently serving four life sentences without parole plus an additional 35 years, returned to the courtroom on Tuesday.
The man charged in a shooting spree targeting metro Atlanta area spas that left eight people dead earlier this year is now potentially facing the death penalty. A Fulton County court set a hearing for April 19, 2022 for any pre-trial motions that the defense plans to file.
Two of the parlors targeted in the March 16 shootings were in Atlanta, while the third was in Cherokee County. Six of the eight victims were Asian women.
Long, 22, was arrested in Crisp County, Georgia as a suspect in the shooting after police used a PIT maneuver to stop his vehicle. He would go on to sign a plea deal, admitting to multiple counts of murder in the killing of four people at the Cherokee County massage parlor.
Long was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole in Cherokee County, with an additional 35 years to be served in confinement for that shooting.
That sentencing accounts for the slayings of Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54 from within a Cherokee County massage parlor.
During a previous press conference following the plea deal, Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis revealed that she planned to seek the death penalty for those killed in the massage parlors located within Fulton County.
Willis was vocally against the death penalty prior to the Atlanta spa shootings.
"Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek it. And at that time I did not," Willis said. "Unfortunately, a case has risen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants the ultimate penalty and we shall seek it."
"The decisions that I made to seek death were with the complete support of the family," she added.
Atlanta spa shooting victims
Willis is also seeking to enhance Long's sentence with hate crime charges. The case would be the first for the county to concern the hate crime law passed by the Georgia Legislature.
Long last appeared in Fulton County court for an arraignment on Sept. 28. He entered a not guilty plea to his charges, including the murder of the four people killed at the two Fulton County massage parlors.
He was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury in the slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63 from within two different Fulton County massage parlors.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the court date set is for pre-trial motions.