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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Ex-Grad Student Gets Life For Three Murders

Compiled From Wire Services

A former San Diego State University graduate student was sentenced to three consecutive life terms without parole Friday for shooting to death three engineering professors at a meeting to defend his master’s thesis.

Frederick Martin Davidson’s sentence was agreed upon in May when he pleaded guilty to murder to avoid the death penalty.

Davidson, 37, opened fire in a classroom Aug. 15 while meeting with a panel of professors. He was arrested in the hall moments later. Chen Liang, 32; D. Preston Lowrey III, 44; and Constantinos Lyrintzis, 36, were killed.

Davidson told police he believed that his adviser, Liang, was bogging him down with work unrelated to his project and that Lowrey had seen him cheating. All three men, Davidson believed, had plotted to keep him from getting a job.