Man in Paseo stabbing sentenced to 10 years

A man who was arrested earlier this year for stabbing two others at Paseo de Marianas in Garapan has pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.

Huang Rui Jun, 49, has pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter, and one count of aggravated assault and battery before Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho for stabbing two others back in May at the Paseo de Marianas.

Camacho, for his part, sentenced Huang to an imprisonment term of 10 years for the voluntary manslaughter charge, and one year for the aggravated assault charge, to be served concurrent with his sentence for manslaughter.

However, pursuant to his plea agreement, Huang will only be serving three years and six months of his 10-year sentence. The remaining six years and six months of Huang’s sentence were suspended.

In addition, Huang was given credit for 221 days of time serve—roughly seven months.

Although a large chunk of Huang’s sentence has been suspended, the remainder of the sentence may be imposed in full if he violates the conditions of his release from prison, or CNMI laws.

After he is released from prison, Huang will be placed on probation for three years and will be supervised by the Office of Adult Probation.

Lastly, Huang was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $10,088.47 to the designated representative for the estate of Ruchun Xu, the man who died as a result of the stabbing, and $5,001.11 to Meng Ling Wei, the second individual Huang stabbed but survived.

Huang was initially charged with murder, attempted murder, assault and battery, aggravated assault and battery, and assault with a dangerous weapon after stabbing one man to death and leaving another critically injured, in what was recorded as the second stabbing at the Paseo de Marianas this year.

Pursuant to the plea agreement he made, all the other charges were dropped and the murder charges against him were converted to voluntary manslaughter.

According to court documents, in the early hours of Monday, May 9, Department of Public Safety received a phone call reporting a stabbing incident at the Paseo de Marianas across Loco Taco Restaurant.

At the scene, responding officers saw two male victims on the ground who were immediately transported to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. for treatment. They were later identified as Meng Ling Wei and Ruchun Xu.

Ruchun was deemed in critical condition due to a stab wound to the chest before he was pronounced dead at 3:50am by Dr. Elizabeth Culp.

Meanwhile Meng sustained multiple abrasions on his elbow, lower back, a small skin tear on his feet, and a stab wound on his right rib area. Meng needed six staples to close the stab wound and remains under antibiotic medication.

A police investigation revealed that Meng, Guo Feng Liao, and Xiao Ping Wang were walking home from Kiss Bar in Garapan when they met up with Huang.

Meng allegedly heard Huang “talking loudly” to Guo Feng, prompting Meng to cuss out Huang in Cantonese. Meng stated that after he cussed out Huang, Huang punched him in the face, causing him to fall.

Meng and his group then left the area but claimed he was still mad at Huang for punching him. Meng later told police that he went back to fight Huang followed by his friends and Ruchun.

Meng stated that during the fight, he heard someone within the group shout that Ruchen had been stabbed and he saw Ruchen lying on the ground, bleeding from his chest.

Meng said he tried to apply pressure to Ruchen’s wound until police arrived.

At that point, Meng said he noticed that he too had been stabbed on the right side of his body.