Last May, I blogged about a murder case that caught my eye: Yu Yao, a 23-year-old Chinese immigrant, was raped and fatally beaten as she walked home from the grocery store in Flushing, Queens. Even in the statistically safe streets of New York, shocking crimes happen on a regular basis but the circumstances behind Yu’s death seemed especially tragic and senseless. Yesterday, Yu’s killer, 29-year-old Carlos Salazar Cruz, was sentenced to the maximum prison term of 22-years-to-life after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. Despite the resolution, neither the senselessness or tragedy of her death have lessened. I’ve updated my original post.