2 UVa students plead guilty to kidnapping

Two University of Virginia students pleaded guilty this morning to kidnapping a fellow Chinese national in Tysons Corner just before Thanksgiving and demanding $500,000 for his release.
Guanyu Lu, 19, and Baichuan Shu, 20, were both second-year engineering students when they hatched the plan to extort money from the family of a 20-year-old man living with his uncle in McLean, prose-cutors said in court today. But Fairfax County police quickly determined where the kidnappers were hiding their victim and rescued him unharmed from a motel bathroom in Falls Church.
New details emerged to-day during the plea hear-ings in Fairfax Circuit Court, and Judge David T. Stitt told both men that they face a possible 20 years to life in prison when he sentences them June 6. Stitt can, however, suspend some of the prison time, and lawyers for both men said they had no prior records.
Fairfax Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gregory O. Holt revealed today that the victim, Paul Wang, was lured out of his house by a phone call about 8 p.m. Nov. 20. The caller told Wang that they didn’t know each other but that they had attended the same high school in China, Holt said. The caller’s car had broken down at Tysons Corner — could Wang come help?
Wang did. He was directed to a parking lot near the Tysons mall, Holt said, and when he arrived, someone knocked him down from behind, covered his eyes and said in English: “Do not move. Be quiet or I’ll kill you.”
Wang was placed in a car, blindfolded, his hands tied, and his wallet re-moved, Holt said. After some driving, he was taken out of the car and thrown on a floor, where his legs were tied together.
Meanwhile, Wang’s un-cle received a call from someone speaking Mandarin Chinese, saying they wanted $500,000 or they would kill Wang, Holt said. The caller also warned the uncle not to call police or the uncle’s family would be killed, Holt said.
The kidnappers called two more times and then had Wang himself call his uncle, Holt said. The kid-nappers continued to call, and told the uncle he had three days to come up with the money.
The next day, the uncle told a family friend of the situation. The friend notified the FBI, Holt said, who then contacted Fairfax police.
The police and FBI then met with Wang’s uncle. During the meeting, Holt said, the kidnappers called the uncle again, still de-manding money.
Police said that AT&T helped them determine the area where the calls were originating: near Little Falls Street and Park Ave-nue, just off Broad Street (Route 7). Holt said Fairfax Detective John Wallace knew that the Stratford Motor Lodge was in that area. Local police are famil-iar with the motel, and Fairfax police had recently investigated a homicide that began there.
On the night of Nov. 21, Detective Chris Flanagan and FBI Special Agent Liu Hong Jiang decided to stake out the motel while Wallace went to Tysons Corner. Wang’s family had been notified by a credit card company of unusual purchases on Wang’s card. Wallace went to the Armani Exchange store and ob-tained surveillance video of two young Asian men buy-ing clothes using Wang’s card, Holt said.
Meanwhile, Flanagan and Jiang saw two men emerge from a Stratford motel room to have a ciga-rette. They walked over to have a chat. The room’s door was open.
Flanagan asked whether anyone else was in the room, Holt said. The men hesitated and said “no.” Flanagan and Jiang noticed that the room’s bathroom door was closed, but the light was on. Flanagan asked whether they could look in the bathroom.
The men looked at each other, Holt said, and agreed to let the officer and agent in. Jiang then found Wang, his head wrapped in duct tape, in the bathtub.
Both Lu and Shu pleaded guilty to one count of abduction with intent to extort money. They did not make any statements during their hearings.