Photo: Wing Wo Ma
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office announced the sentence of life in prison for a man guilty of a 2013 double murder –
“On 10-17-2013 at 2:35 PM, Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to a suspicious vehicle parked in the 31000 block of Highway 20 in Fort Bragg, California.
Upon their arrival, Deputies located a mini-van near the area of the “Bark Dumps”. The van was parked in a manner which prevented it from being clearly seen from Highway 20.
Deputies checked the interior of the van and discovered the bodies of a deceased male and a deceased female. Both victims were subsequently identified as Jim Tat Kong and Cindy Bao Feng Chen.
Both were determined to have been killed by gunshots to the back of their heads.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the California Department of Justice Criminalists and the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office. The investigation lead Mendocino County Sheriff’s Detectives to the Bay Area where they worked largely in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (Asian Organized Crime unit out of San Francisco).
On 10-22-2015, the suspect, Wing Wo Ma was arrested by Mendocino County Sheriff’s Detectives and the FBI outside his home in Oakland, for a federal arrest warrant alleging manufacturing and distribution of a controlled substance, (Title 21, US Code, Section 841(a)(1); an enhancement for the previous section with more than 100 marijuana plants (Title 21, US Code 841(b)(1)(B); and conspiracy to commit above charges (US Code section 846.)
Ma was held without bail in Federal custody, and on 04-06-2017, a Federal Grand Jury gave a superseding indictment on Ma for two counts of Title 21, US Code, 924(j)(1)(A) [A person, who, in the course of a violation of sub section (c) causes the death of a person through the use of a firearm]. Additionally Ma was federally indicted for multiple counts of corruption, bribery of officials and conspiracy.
On 11-07-2019, Ma was found guilty of all counts after a lengthy federal trial in San Francisco.
On 08-05-2020 The Honorable Charles R Breyer, US District Judge, sentenced Ma to life in prison.
The Honorable Judge Breyer, in handing down the sentence, called the murder of Jim Tat Kong and Cindy Bao Feng Chen a “Cold-blooded assassination.” Ma remained remanded to Federal Custody.
This case was prosecuted Federally by the United States Attorney’s Office in San Francisco due to the far reaching crimes connected to the murders committed in Mendocino County.
The primary agencies involved in the investigation were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
