USC grad student murders: Second suspect Javier Bolden convicted

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Javier Bolden, 22, one of two men charged in the shooting deaths of two USC graduate students from China in 2012, was convicted Monday of two counts of first-degree murder.

The murder charges carry special circumstances but prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty, so Bolden could face life in prison without the possibility of parole when he is sentenced on November 17.

Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23-year-old engineering graduate students, were shot to death during an attempted robbery on April 11, 2012. The victims were sitting in a car on the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue, about a mile from the University of Southern California campus.

Bolden and co-defendant Bryan Barnes were arrested on May 18, 2012.

Bolden was recorded confessing to the killings by a cellmate who was a police informant. Bolden discussed in the recording how he and a friend had planned to steal the couple's BMW. His attorney claims Bolden was lying in order to appear tough.

Bolden was also convicted Monday of attempted murder for a Feb. 12, 2012, shooting about three miles away in which a man who was shot in the head suffered permanent brain damage, along with assault with a semi-automatic firearm on a woman who was shot in the leg by a stray bullet.

The jury deliberated for less than a day and a half before finding Bolden guilty on all counts.

Barnes, 24, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder on February 5, 2014, and was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life in prison without possibility of parole, avoiding the death penalty. Barnes also admitted the special circumstances of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery and that he personally discharged a firearm.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.