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| FILE - In this Sept. 12, 2019 file photo, Tiffany Li arrives at the courthouse in Redwood City, Calif. Opening arguments begin Monday, Sept. 23 in the trial of the San Francisco Bay Area real estate heiress who posted $35 million bail after being charged with the 2016 murder of her children's father. San Mateo County prosecutors say Li orchestrated the murder of Keith Green. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar, File) |
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.
A Chinese real estate heiress lured the father of her children to a meeting at her home to discuss a custody dispute, where her boyfriend then fatally shot the man, a California prosecutor said Monday in opening arguments of their murder trial.
Tiffany Li and her boyfriend, Kaveh Bayat then hired a friend to dispose of Keith Green’s body and took steps to cover their crime by creating alibis for themselves, prosecutor Bryan Abanto told jurors.
Li, whose family posted an astonishing $35 million bail after she was charged with murder in the 2016 killing, has pleaded not guilty. Her co-defendant, who also has pleaded not guilty, remains in jail on $35 million bail.
San Mateo Deputy District Attorney Bryan Abanto told jurors he will present evidence that Li lured Green to meet with her to discuss their custody dispute, and that Bayat shot the victim in the mouth in the garage of Li’s house.
Abanto said the pair hired a friend named Olivier Adella to dispose Green’s body on the side of a road and took steps to cover their crime by creating alibis for themselves. Investigators later found more than $35,000 in cash and Green’s watch hidden in a lunchbox at Adella’s apartment, he said.
After Green, 27, went missing, Abanto said Li told investigators she last saw him at a restaurant when cellphone data linked his whereabouts to her house.
The defense countered that Adella killed Green as a result of a botched kidnap plot and said investigators overlooked certain evidence in their quest to pin the crime on Li and Bayat.
“Evidence will show she very much wanted (Green) in their lives, in their daughters’ lives, together as parents,” defense attorney May Mar said.
The trial has been delayed several times, most recently when Adella, who was supposed to be a witness for the prosecution, was arrested earlier this month on charges of contacting an ex-girlfriend and witness for the defense.
Adella was expected to testify that the pair asked him to dispose of Green’s body.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said prosecutors now will not call Adella as a witness.
Last year the trial was delayed when Li was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer and underwent aggressive treatment, said her lead attorney, Geoff Carr. The cancer is in remission.
Green and Li met around 2009 when he was 21 and she was 23. He was a high school football star from a blue-collar neighborhood while Li was rich and educated.
Green’s body was found along a dirt road north of San Francisco nearly two weeks after he had been last seen meeting with Li to discuss custody of their children.
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