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Foreign students get jail for beating, burning classmates

Posted February 17, 2016 6:00 am

The Associated Press

ROWLAND HEIGHTS, Calif. (AP) - Three students from China have been sentenced to years in prison for stripping, beating and burning two Southern California classmates.

Yunyao "Helen" Zhai was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years behind bars. Yuhan "Coco" Yang got 10 years, and Xinlei "John" Zhang got six.

The 19-year-olds were charged with bullying a 16-year-old girl who was punched and slapped last March at a restaurant and a park in Rowland Heights, east of Los Angeles.

Prosecutors say two days later, they kidnapped an 18-year-old classmate and took her to a park where she was stripped naked, beaten, punched, kicked, spat on, burned with cigarettes and forced to eat her own hair during a five-hour assault.

Last month, they pleaded no contest to kidnapping and assault rather than face potential life sentences for torture.

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