Waikiki man who killed mom to serve 30 years

Two years ago a Waikiki man killed his mother, cut up her body in pieces and put them in the freezer.

On Friday 27-year-old Yu Wei Gong pleaded guilty in the death of his mom, Liu Yun Gong.

As part of a deal with Honolulu prosecutors, he also pleaded guilty to abusing a corpse and identity theft, as he spent at least $750 from his mother’s bank account after he killed her.

The plea deal, accepted by Oahu Circuit Court Judge Paul B.K. Wong, calls for the son to serve 30 years in prison and face up to $62,000 in fines or restitution.

Wong set a sentencing date of Jan. 14 after Gong, who remains in police custody, was arraigned and signed the plea deal in court Friday.

Gong appeared in court wearing a peach-colored polo shirt with a blue collar. He showed no emotion while answering questions from the judge through an interpreter speaking Mandarin.

Details of the grisly case were not discussed in court, and Deputy Prosecutor Wayne Tashima declined to talk about it after the hearing, citing the plea deal with the family.

According to court documents, Gong called police on April 11, 2017, to confess to the crime. He told the 911 dispatcher he hit his mother and accidentally killed her seven months earlier at their Launiu Street apartment after the two argued. He also said he had just tried to kill himself.

When an officer arrived at the apartment, Gong was outside bleeding from his left wrist. He told the officer his mother was angry because he was not going to school. He said he wanted to work instead.

Asked where his mother was, Gong told the officer she was “in the fridge.” When the officer opened the freezer, he found seven plastic trash bags containing human remains.

A subsequent investigation discovered that the woman had been missing from her work since Aug. 21, 2016, and that a co-worker had tried to contact her unsuccessfully since August, court records show.

Prints taken from the fingers of the woman matched fingerprints on file for her Hawaii driver’s license, and the medical examiner’s office concluded that the woman died from “sustained blunt force injuries to her head.”

According to the plea agreement, Gong will be sentenced not on the original charge of second-degree murder but for the lesser charge of manslaughter which, in this case, is for causing a death while suffering from extreme mental and emotional distress.

While second-degree murder calls for a life sentence and possible parole, the manslaughter charge results in a 20-year prison term and a possible fine of up to $50,000. For the identity theft charge, Gong will get a 10-year term and, under the plea deal, it will start only after he serves the full 20-year sentence, Tashima said.

The abuse of a corpse charge is worth a year in jail and up to $2,000 in fines. Under the plea deal, it will run concurrently with the 20-year term.

On Friday, Gong waived his right to a probable cause hearing, and all other case-related matters were stricken from the court calendar except for the January sentencing.