For release on August 2, 2013
CONTACT PERSON:
Angela Bernhard, Deputy District Attorney
Homicide Unit
(408) 792-2820
A Silicon Valley engineer was sentenced today to life in prison plus 75 years for gunning down three of his employers after he was fired.
Jing Hua Wu, 52, was found guilty of the murders by a jury earlier this year. At sentencing, the Hon. Sharon Chatman levied the life sentence, which comes without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutor Angela Bernhard said, “For this cold-blooded murder of three innocent people, the defendant deserves to spend the rest of his life behind bars.”
On the morning of November 14, 2008, Wu was fired from his job as a test engineer at SiPort, a Santa Clara high-tech company. Later that day, an angry Wu bought two boxes of ammunition and returned to the company’s headquarters with a handgun. There, execution-style, he shot three company executives in their heads, killing Sid Agrawal, 56, Brian Pugh, 47, and Marilyn Lewis, 67. At his three-month long trial, Wu testified that he did not recall the shootings, that he had been wrongly fired, and that he was a victim in the case.
SiPort CEO Agrawal was born in India to a modest family. He came to the U.S. with borrowed airfare in 1975. He earned a masters degree in engineering from the University of Southern Illinois and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He worked with such companies as Bell and Adobe and helped start up Intel’s India operations. A dedicated family man, Agrawal left behind his wife and two sons.
Vice President of Operations Pugh graduated from University of California, Berkeley earning a B.S. in Physics and Computer Science, then obtained an M.S. in Applied Physics from Stanford University. He worked in the field of semiconductor operations for 25 years. Pugh enjoyed singing and was a member of many choirs. Pugh loved being a father to his two children, enjoyed hiking and volunteering for many organizations to help those less fortunate.
Lewis, SiPort’s Human Resources Manager, was born in Elmira, New York and moved to San Jose at the age of two. She married and had three children, and was the grandmother of five. Professionally, she enjoyed setting up offices for start-up companies. In her free time, she enjoyed traveling, bowling, fishing, and quilting. She was known for being "mom" to everyone around her, she always made sure that no one left hungry.
“The victims in this case deserved the right to live their lives in peace,” prosecutor Tim McInerny said. “When the defendant murdered them, he robbed them of that right. For that choice, the defendant deserves to be removed from society like the cancer he is.”
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