KINGFISHER – The Chinese national identified on video and by witnesses as the killer of four people at a marijuana farm near Hennessey pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Besides killing four other Chinese nationals, Wu Chen, 47, of rural Hennessey, also shot and wounded a fifth and fired at, but missed, a sixth, Assistant District Attorney Austin Murrey informed the court.
Because of those offenses, Chen pleaded guilty to assault and battery with a deadly weapon, for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
All five sentences were imposed on Feb. 9 and are to be served concurrently. The state agreed not to seek the death penalty in exchange for Chen’s guilty pleas.
The gunplay occurred on Nov. 20, 2022. The farm, located 15 miles west of Hennessey, was registered and licensed with the state as a medical marijuana grow operation. However, investigators discovered it was operating illegally.
Witnesses at the scene said Chen demanded that employees of the marijuana grow operation pay him $300,000 “as a return of a portion of his ‘investment’ in the enterprise,” Murrey wrote in a motion urging the court to not release Chen on bail. The fact that the money “could not be handed over on a moment’s notice was what precipitated the mass murder,” Murrey wrote.
Immediately after the killings, Chen drove to Miami, Florida, where the airport “services several airlines with flights to China,” Murrey noted. In addition, Miami is “extremely close to Cuba,” which has no criminal extradition treaty with the U.S., Murrey added.
Chen was found and arrested in Miami on Nov. 22, 2022, and was sent back to Oklahoma.