The three teenagers accused of murdering a USC graduate student showed no emotion Tuesday as they sat in court and watched security camera video which allegedly shows them chasing the victim down and then beating him with a baseball bat.
Security cameras also captured Xinran Ji returning to his apartment building, beaten and bloody.
His roommate found his lifeless body in his bedroom in the morning.
"She called his name. He didn't respond and then she called 911," LAPD Detective Matthew Courtney testified Tuesday.
Ji was walking home from a study group in the early morning hours of July 24 when he was attacked.
Charged with his murder are 19-year-old Jonathan del Carmen, Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16.
The preliminary hearing will determine if there's enough evidence to hold a trial.
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Courtney testified about the trail of blood which led from the crime scene to Ji's apartment.
There were gasps in the courtroom when evidence photos showed large amounts of blood in Ji's apartment and on his clothes.
Hours after Ji was beaten, the defendants were arrested when they allegedly robbed a young couple at Dockweiler beach.
Claudia Rocha, one of the victims, identified the defendants in court.
"The gentleman with the glasses tried to hit him and the bat fell out of his hands," she testified.
The car the defendants were driving when they were arrested was also captured by license plate reader technology in the area where Ji was attacked.
Both the license plate reader technology and the security cameras which captured Ji's beating were installed after two other USC Chinese graduate students were slain near campus two years ago.
