Chinese man jailed for killing New York family

A Chinese man was sentenced to 125 years to life in a US prison on Tuesday for murdering a New York mother and her four children with a meat cleaver.

 Mingdong Chen, 27, a cousin of the mother's husband, had been staying with the family in their Brooklyn apartment in the weeks leading up to the vicious October 2013 attack.

 Qiao Zhen Li, 37, was found dead with her daughters aged nine and seven, and sons aged five and one, in their home on October 27, 2013. They had suffered fatal stab wounds to the neck and head.

 Li earlier telephoned her mother-in-law in China to tell her that Chen was threatening the family with a knife, investigators said.

 The mother-in-law alerted relatives in Brooklyn who rushed to the apartment, where they found Chen covered in blood and forcibly restrained him until police arrived.

 Chen pleaded guilty earlier this month to three counts of second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree manslaughter, and was sentenced by a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge on Tuesday.

 "This defendant's vicious and sadistic attack makes him completely unfit to remain in society," said Brooklyn district attorney Ken Thompson.

 "He will now spend the rest of his life behind bars."