Chen Mindong, a 27-year-old Chinese immigrant, was sentenced on Tuesday to 125 years to life in prison for killing his cousin's wife and her four young children.

With a meat cleaver - an iconic symbol of a traditional Chinese home - Chen killed Qiaozhen Li, 37, and her children, Linda Zhuo, 9, Amy Zhuo, 7, Kevin Zhuo, 5, and William Zhuo, 1, at his cousin Zhuo Yilin's apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

Zhuo Hongjin, sister of the man whose family was killed, spoke at the sentencing. "My brother suffered so much for the past two years," she said through an interpreter before bursting into tears.

"What has been bothering us is that we don't understand why he killed them," she said. "Why? We don't understand. Can you give us a chance to ask him face to face? Can we ask him?"

Judge Vincent Del Giudice of state Supreme Court in Brooklyn said he couldn't do that because Chen pleaded guilty on Oct 7. "I can't give you why, but I hope that this sentence I'm going to give him will offer you some amount of peace and condolence," he said.

Chen was sentenced to three terms of 25 years to life in prison for the murder counts and two terms of 25 years on the manslaughter counts.

"You'll never again be allowed to be free. Spend the rest of your life in a cage," the judge told Chen through an interpreter. Chen's eyes were dull, and he showed no expression.

Chen came to the United States from Fujian province at the age of 16. He arrived in the US with $70,000 of debt to the "snakeheads", as the smugglers are called. Like many undocumented Chinese immigrants, Chen worked for years in Chinese take-out restaurants in rural towns to pay back the debt.

In 2007, with fake testimonials that a Chinatown immigration agency helped him forge, Chen applied for asylum to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services to get a green card but failed. There were rounds of appeals, and the final rejection was announced in June 2013.

Chen's mother and uncle said that his mental health deteriorated after the rejection. "He was too lonely."

In October, Chen lost his job in Florida and came to New York for a break. There, he stayed with his cousin Zhuo Yilin's family in Brooklyn.

On the evening of Oct 26, 2013, while Zhuo was working at a restaurant, Li called her mother-in-law in China and said Chen was holding a knife. When relatives rushed to the apartment, they found all five dead.

"I hope he suffers behind bars for life," Zhuo said outside the courtroom.

His sister thanked everyone for helping them, and told the Chinese media, "By the 26th it would be two years. This time we have something to say to my sister-in-law."

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com