Any homicide-related charge against the suspects in the Yong Hui Zhang slaying would be filed somewhere other than Fredericksburg.
City Commonwealth’s Attorney Charles Sharp said today that forensic evidence has proven that Zhang was not killed in Fredericksburg.
Sharp would not specify what that evidence was and he said investigators have not yet been able to pinpoint a location.
“But what is clear is that the fatal wound was not delivered in Fredericksburg,” Sharp said at a press conference this morning.
Zhang was abducted and killed after he made a delivery for his family’s China Express restaurant the evening of July 3.
Someone ordered the food to a vacant apartment on Charles Street, where they ambushed Zhang and took his car and credit card. A pool of blood and one of Zhang’s shoes was found at the scene.
Zhang’s body was found July 6 in a remote area of Sussex County in southeastern Virginia. An autopsy revealed that he was killed by a knife wound to the chest.
Jermaine Montgomery, 34, and Marcey White, 36, were arrested the previous day while using Zhang’s credit card at a Wal–Mart in Franklin.
They are each charged in Fredericksburg with abduction, carjacking, credit card theft and three counts of conspiracy.
Any murder-related charges against the suspects would be filed in either Sussex County—where Zhang’s body was found—or in an as yet undermined locality between Fredericksburg and Sussex.
However, Sharp said his office would proceed with the six charges already filed against the pair and will offer what assistance it can to whichever locality ends up with the murder case.
Sharp said that had the slaying occurred in Fredericksburg, he would have sought the death penalty. But he said he cannot speculate on what another commonwealth’s attorney might decide.
Lyndia Ramsey is the commonwealth’s attorney in Sussex. She was not available for comment today.
The charges Montgomery and White are facing in Fredericksburg carry a maximum penalty of life plus 60 years in prison.
Sharp said that while he is hopeful the homicide charges will be filed before a scheduled Aug. 7 preliminary hearing in Fredericksburg, he can’t envision a scenario in which the homicide-related trial would occur first.
Sharp said investigators are gathering more information every day even though the suspects are not cooperating.
Montgomery and White, who are boyfriend and girlfriend, are being held without bond in the Rappahannock Regional Jail.
Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
kepps@freelancestar.com