No State Supreme Court Review in Arcadia Kidnapping Case

By City News Service

The California Supreme Court refused today to review the case against a Chicago man who was convicted of kidnapping a San Gabriel woman for ransom and then trying to kill her.

DeQiang Song was convicted in March 2012 of one count each of kidnapping for ransom and attempted murder. Jurors also found that Song had used a knife during the commission of the crimes and that the victim -- who was 21 at the time -- suffered great bodily injury.

He was sentenced in May 2012 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The victim knew Song through a mutual friend and went with him to an Arcadia shopping mall on Sept. 8, 2010, then was driven to an area off the Mojave (15) Freeway in Apple Valley, where she was tied up and a call was made to her father to demand ransom.

Song tried to strangle the woman, then sliced her throat with a knife and left her for dead, authorities said. She managed to walk a quarter-to-half mile after the attack and was rescued by good Samaritans in the Apple Valley area.

The woman had to undergo emergency surgery and remained hospitalized for several days, according to a June 13 ruling by a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal, which upheld Song's conviction.

Song was arrested about 1 a.m. the following day after showing up to collect $10,000 -- in what turned out to be simulated currency -- in a paper bag that he had instructed the father to leave underneath a truck in a San Gabriel parking lot.

In its June ruling, the three-justice appellate court panel found there was evidence that Song kidnapped the woman at knifepoint, placed a knife against her throat, bound her hands and feet and telephoned her father to demand ransom money.

"He subsequently strangled her until she lost consciousness," the appellate court panel found. "He also beat her about the face and slit her throat with the knife."

The appellate court justices noted that jurors could conclude that Song tried to kill the woman "well after the ransom demand was made by leaving her in a remote desert area to die."