The 24-year-old facing the death penalty in the 2021 spa shooting rampage that left eight people dead across metro Atlanta briefly appeared in court Monday morning.
At the status conference, Robert Aaron Long’s attorneys asked Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville to postpone a series of motions hearings until late summer. Glanville tentatively scheduled those hearings for the week of Aug. 21.
Attorneys and the judge alluded to possible scheduling challenges stemming from the ongoing “Young Slime Life” trial and any potential indictments in the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
“There is a concern about security in the courthouse during the months of August and September,” said executive district attorney Mike Carlson.
Fulton DA Fani Willis has said she will announce this summer whether Trump and his allies will be charged, penning a letter to local law enforcement in which she asked them to be ready for “heightened security and preparedness.”
Glanville acknowledged there were “a lot of things going on,” especially given the July and August court terms.
“We’ll have to see what goes on at that time which may affect other proceedings,” Glanville said.
Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@
Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@
Long admitted to the March 16, 2021, shootings after his arrest and has already been sentenced to four consecutive life sentences, plus 35 years, for killing four people and wounding a fifth at a spa in Cherokee County.
Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49, Daoyou Feng, 44, Delaina Yaun, 33, and Paul Michels, 54, were killed at Youngs Asian Massage near Acworth when Long opened fire after a massage. A fifth person, Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz, was injured.
Family Photos
Family Photos
Afterward, Long got in his SUV and drove about 30 miles to Piedmont Road in Atlanta where Yong Ae Yue, 63, Soon Chung Park, 74, Suncha Kim, 69, and Hyun Jung Grant, 51, were gunned down at the Gold Spa and the Aromatherapy Spa, authorities said.
Six of the eight victims killed that day were Asian women. The shootings stunned the nation and galvanized members of metro Atlanta’s Asian American community, prompting widespread condemnation of what many viewed as an apparent hate crime.
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