Accused in West Vancouver slaying guilty of lesser charge of manslaughter
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2020 01:59:24 +0000
A man accused of murdering a West Vancouver millionaire and chopping up the body into more than 100 pieces has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
In a lengthy ruling that began Monday and concluded Tuesday, B.C Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes found that the Crown had not proven that Li Zhao had the necessary intent to commit the May 2015 second-degree murder of businessman Gang Yuan, 42, at the victim’s West Van home.
But the judge found Zhao, who was 56 at the time the trial began in May 2017, was guilty of manslaughter, a lesser and included offence to murder.
The judge said at the outset of his ruling that there was no dispute that Zhao had fatally shot Yuan and dismembered the body after an altercation between the two men, who both lived in the British Properties mansion.
But he said the outcome of the trial turned on proof of the mental state of the accused that accompanied those actions, particularly regarding whether Zhao had the necessary intent for murder when he shot Yuan.
The Crown had argued that Zhao’s confession to police was the most accurate version of events and urged the judge to discount the accused’s trial testimony as being inconsistent with the police statement.
The prosecution also urged the judge to disregard a report by a defence psychologist that found that at the time of the slaying, Zhao was engaged in a “fight-or-flight” response.
The defence argued that Zhao was provoked by Yuan leading to a loss of self-control and therefore didn’t have the necessary intent for murder and that the psychologist’s report on Zhao’s mental state at the time of the offence should be accepted.
The judge rejected Zhao’s trial testimony as being less an accurate and complete account of events than an “elaborate revisiting” of all of the significant incriminating features of his statement to police.
Schultes also dismissed the psychologist as being more an advocate for the defence than acting impartially for the court.
The judge found that the accused’s original statement to police was closer to the forensic and other evidence presented at the trial, which saw numerous lengthy adjournments including a number of delays in the judge rendering his verdict.
The police statement described how there was a heated argument between Zhao and Yuan over an invention by Zhao and that the accused became angry when Yuan suggested that he could get shares in any company that might be established if Zhao agreed to allow Yuan to marry his daughter.
Zhao described blows being exchanged and a fight over a hammer before he became tired and grabbed the rifle, loaded the bullets and pointed it at the victim and issued a warning for him not to move. When Yuan flung the hammer at him but missed, Zhao claimed to police that he was scared and opened fire and described Yuan lifting his head and hand high up before Zhao fired a second shot.
The judge found Zhao guilty of manslaughter as well as the offence of interfering with a human body. The case was put over until next week to fix a date for sentencing.
Outside court, Ian Donaldson, a lawyer for Zhao, said it would probably take his client a while to process the verdict.
“When the Crown seeks a verdict of murder and you’re acquitted of murder and found guilty of manslaughter, that’s a fortunate outcome for an accused,” the defence lawyer told reporters. “I would say that the judge carefully considered a lot of evidence, made the findings that he was obliged to and reached a rationale, reasonable decision. We pressed for a verdict of manslaughter. Yes, that was our argument. And so it was the verdict we sought.”
Donaldson described his client as being a man of “previously unblemished character” who had been an involved, contributing member of the community together with his family in China, in other parts of Canada and in B.C.
“He’s a completely normal, well-adjusted sensible human being until this day. Non-violent, non-anything. Completely non-violent. One of the witnesses testified that this was the last thing in the world he would ever expect to hear concerning Mr. Zhao.”