CA - Keith Green, 27, found deceased, Millbrae, 28 April 2016 *not guilty*

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The murder trial of Hillsborough real-estate heiress Tiffany Li gets underway in a San Mateo County courtroom this week, bringing to a head a years-long legal drama that has already included one of the most expensive bails in U.S. history and a lengthy delay after Li was diagnosed with cancer.

Li and her boyfriend, Kaveh Bayat, are charged with the murder of 27-year-old Keith Green, the father of Li’s children. As they prepare for a trial that is expected to last into November, attorneys for the prosecution and defense say the verdict could hinge in large part on whether jurors believe the testimony of a former co-defendant who the prosecution turned into a star witness, and who says he hid Green’s body after Li and Bayat killed him.

Tiffany Li murder trial set to start in San Mateo County
 
cinsbythesea said:
Hopefully this posts - Mercury News has gone the "must pay to read" route. Trial delayed again - this time supposedly only until Tuesday.

Key witness in Tiffany Li murder case arrested, trial delayed again
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Thanks for posting this, cinsbythesea! I was able to circumvent the paywall by copying the headline, pasting it in the Google search bar, and then clicking on the link to the article from the search results:

“REDWOOD CITY — On the day attorneys were supposed to make their opening statements in the murder trial of a wealthy Hillsborough real estate heiress and her boyfriend, the trial’s start was pushed back and a key prosecution witness wound up in handcuffs.

The prosecution witness, who was not expected to appear at the hearing, was arrested for using Instagram to contact a witness for the defense.

[SBM]

The prosecution was set to begin presenting evidence to the jury Thursday morning, with the joint trial of [Tiffany] Li and [Kaveh] Bayat expected to last into November. The jury, which includes four alternates, is made up of 10 women and six men.

[SBM]

Li did not speak as she entered court with her attorneys Thursday morning. She has been out of custody and effectively on house arrest since spring 2017, when she posted one of the highest bail amounts on record in the United States: a $66 million portfolio of cash and real estate assets raised by her family and friends.

[SBM]

With the jurors out of the courtroom, attorneys for Li said they had uncovered evidence that Olivier Adella — who was expected to testify that Li and Bayat came to him the night Green was murdered and asked him to get rid of Green’s body — had created an Instagram account to contact a defense witness.

Adella had reached a plea deal to testify against his former co-defendants in exchange for a reduced charge. He was released from jail last fall after pleading no contest to the lesser charge of being an accessory to murder.

[SBM]

The witness Adella was accused of contacting was his ex-girlfriend, a woman that defense attorneys allege he physically abused. Li’s attorney, Geoffrey Carr, said the woman had not heard from Adella in years, but he messaged her saying that he knew she was working with the defense.

‘We were having difficulty convincing her to come because she was already afraid of him,’ Carr said.

[SBM]

An attorney for Adella, Dek Ketchum, said the messages were the result of ‘bad judgment,’ but asked Foiles not to take Adella into custody.

‘They never had a conversation about the case,’ Ketchum told Foiles, and Adella never sought to discourage her from testifying.

Foiles ordered Adella taken into custody without bail at the end of the brief hearing, and told attorneys to return to court Monday for hearings on trial motions.” (BBM)
Key witness in Tiffany Li murder case arrested, trial delayed again

Not only does the Prosecution admit their key witness violated the judge’s order, but also the terms of his release from jail. And his own attorney doesn’t deny the allegations against his client .... Who would have expected something like this? SMH.
 
Believed to have been a co-conspirator of 34-year-old Tiffany Li in the 2016 murder of 27-year-old Keith Green, Olivier Adella was taken into custody Thursday on accusations he attempted to intimidate a defense witness in the trial for Li and her 32-year-old boyfriend Kaveh Bayat, who is believed to have pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Green, according to prosecutors.

By using social media to intimidate another witness, Adella — who pleaded no contest to accessory to murder in 2018 and agreed to testify as a witness against Li and Bayat — violated the terms of his release from custody.
Prosecution to drop testimony of key murder trial witness
 
imstilla.grandma said:
The San Mateo County district attorney's office announced Monday that it's revoking a plea deal with Olivier Adella after revelations that he contacted a defense witness.

The judge delayed start of trial a week to next Monday.
Witness in California heiress murder trial loses plea deal
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Thank you for the update, imstilla.grandma.

This is really, really bad news for the prosecution. It couldn’t have come at a worse time, either.

Li’s and Bayat’s attorneys are sure to argue it is entirely possible that Adella planned the murder on his own and/or is the trigger man, thus creating reasonable doubt ... IMO.
 
While discussing how much money Green was asking for, Li texted Bayat, “ that. WTF,” according to testimony from Sheriff’s Sgt. Johnathan Sebring.

“He’s trying to get money again. What a little snake,” Bayat texted back. “That’s all he wants, it’s not about the kids.”

“OK. Green light,” Li texted back.

During the FaceTime video, Li told Green that “we both made mistakes,” that she just wanted to move on, and that she was happy with Bayat.

I don’t really think you care about anything but your own stuff,” Green told Li.

“It sucks, I don’t want to leave the kids. It’s been really, really bad, you know?” Green said.

On April 27, Bayat texted Green, “My man, what’s good?”

Green replied, “Nothing much, still at work. Are we still good for tonight?”

Bayat wrote, “Tomorrow night around 11 p.m. I’ll text you the address.”

Green wrote to Li, “Thanks again for taking the time to meet me.”

Li replied, “All good. Just please don’t argue with me. Peaceful talk.”
Chilling texts read at Hillsborough heiress murder trial: ‘Green light’
 
Thursday, September 26, 2019 1:36AM
“HILLSBOROUGH, Calif. (KGO) -- Jurors in the murder case against the Hillsborough heiress accused of killing the father of her children heard horrific details of the crime Wednesday.

The panel was shown crime scene photos of the badly decomposed body of Keith Green in a field near Healdsburg, in Sonoma County in May 2016. Two of Green's supporters wept as the photos were shown.

[SBM]

Green's body could be seen in the crime scene photos with his left and right arms stretched out and his legs spread apart. An official with the Sonoma County Coroner's office said it appeared that his body had been partially eaten by animals.

A now-retired Sonoma County Coroner official, Dr. Anthony Chapman, told jurors that ‘it's not like TV’ and that he could not pinpoint the exact date of Green's death but that his body had been there for at least a week. Chapman said Green's cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head,

The trial got contentious during the morning session when Li's attorney Geoff Carr made a motion for a mistrial because he said he was getting too much discovery evidence from the prosecution ‘on the fly’ and with virtually no time to prepare. Judge Robert Foiles did not grant the motion but admonished the lawyers to adhere to court rules.

[SBM]

The case is expected to last until mid-November.

Li is free on bail-- $62 million in property and $4 million cash. [Li’s co-defendant, Kaveh] Bayat's bail amount was set at $35 million and he remains in jail.

Li's bail was also set at $35 million but the bail formula allows for property to be substituted for cash at 50-percent of the property's value.

During the morning session, the prosecution showed numerous text messages between Bayat, Li and Adella and at one point displayed a group photo of all three along with Adella's wife and two unidentified children. The prosecution may have been aiming to deflate the defense's argument that Li was not close to Adella.

[SBM]”
Gruesome evidence revealed in Hillsborough heiress murder case
 
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Posted: Sep 26, 2019 / 03:27 PM PDT/
Updated: Sep 26, 2019 / 04:16 PM PDT
“REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (KRON) – The morning after Keith Green vanished, police officers showed up on the front doorstep of heiress Tiffany Li’s Hillsborough mansion on West Santa Inez Avenue.

Homicide detectives were on the right path, according to prosecutors. The previous night, prosecutors said, Li had lured the father of her two young daughters into her mansion. Her new boyfriend then allegedly forced a gun inside Green’s mouth. He died instantly from a single gunshot wound, a forensic pathologist testified during this week’s murder trial.

[SBM]

[Li’s co-defendant, Kaveh] Bayat and Green were friends before they became tangled into a love triangle with the wealthy young heiress.

[SBM]

When police officers left Li’s mansion on the morning of April 29, 2016, she called Green’s cellphone.

No one answered. She left a voicemail. Li’s voice was calm as she said, ‘Police came to my house this morning. I guess you are missing or something? Give me a call back when you get this.’

[SBM]

On May 2, Li began searching on Google and Facebook for news articles with the keywords, ‘Keith Green, missing person,’ Sheriff’s Sgt. Johnathan Sebring testified. One article she read was headlined, ‘Sheriff calls Millbrae man’s disappearance suspicious.’

Meanwhile, Bayat was also searching the internet for news about Green’s missing person case, Sebring said. Bayat searched Google with the keywords, ‘Missing Millbrae man found,’ ‘Keith Green ex-girlfriend,’ and ‘Keith Green Millbrae Facebook.’

[SBM]

Prosecutors showed the jury the text messages exchanged between Li and Green the day of the homicide. In the morning, Li texted Green about meeting later that night to talk. First, Li suggested that they meet in a park at 9 p.m.

Green texted back saying that 9 p.m. was ‘kinda late’ to meet in a park. Li then suggested that they meet at Olivier Adella’s condo on Trousdale Drive in Burlingame. According to prosecutors, Adella was a bodyguard for Li and Bayat, and he had already been hired to dispose of Green’s body.

Li and Green eventually agreed on meeting across the street from an apartment where he had been staying recently. They met in the parking lot of a pancake restaurant.

[SBM]

The text messages allegedly exchanged between Adella and Bayat in the hours and days following the homicide are disturbing. Adella and Bayat trained together weight lifting. While they were texting each other about meeting up for a workout, Adella sent Bayat a photo of trash bags overflowing out of trash cans, investigators said. The next photo he sent showed the lids of the trash cans closed.

Adella cooperated with investigators in exchange for a plea deal that fell through less than a month before the long-delayed trial began. While he was still cooperating, Adella told detectives that Bayat showed him a gun, and gave him gloves.

Adella claimed Bayat told him, ” ‘I need you to take out the trash.’

[SBM]” (BBM)
Heiress on trial: Tiffany Li’s actions after homicide scrutinized
 
In closing arguments in their trial for the murder of Keith Green, prosecutors argued Wednesday that the last cell phone ping from Green’s phone came from Li’s estate. And phone signals also placed Li and Bayat in the house in what they believe were the final moments of Green’s life.

Defense attorneys, however, said that the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office over-interpreted evidence and presented an “unreasonable” circumstantial case against the pair. They directed blame instead toward Olivier Adella a former co-defendant, who was supposed to serve as a star prosecution witness but was disqualified on the eve of the trial.
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Final arguments made in Hillsborough heiress murder trial
 
“The jurors in the Tiffany Li trial are set to begin their sixth day of deliberations in the case involving the Hillsborough real estate scion who is on trial for orchestrating the murder of her children’s father.

It’s not unusual for juries to deliberate for days at a time for a complicated case like this, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said yesterday (Nov. 4). But what is unusual is how little the jury has asked questions or had the court read back testimony, Wagstaffe said.

So far, the jury has had one day of hearing testimony read back to them, and have asked twice for a laptop with an Excel spreadsheet, where some of the records for the case can be seen. Judge Robert Foiles turned down the request, saying the records are too voluminous.

[SBM]

The attorneys for Li and Bayat say it was another man, Olivier Adella, who killed Green during an attempted kidnapping. But prosecutor Bryan Abanto said Li and Bayat killed Green because she feared losing custody of their two daughters. Adella is in jail and will go to court once the jury trial wraps up.

[SBM]”
Jurors deliberating fate of Tiffany Li, real estate scion charged with murder of her children's father - Palo Alto Daily Post
 
50 mins ago
“The jurors in the Tiffany Li trial are set to begin their sixth day of deliberations in the case involving the Hillsborough real estate scion who is on trial for orchestrating the murder of her children’s father.

It’s not unusual for juries to deliberate for days at a time for a complicated case like this, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said yesterday (Nov. 4). But what is unusual is how little the jury has asked questions or had the court read back testimony, Wagstaffe said.

So far, the jury has had one day of hearing testimony read back to them, and have asked twice for a laptop with an Excel spreadsheet, where some of the records for the case can be seen. Judge Robert Foiles turned down the request, saying the records are too voluminous.

[SBM]

The attorneys for Li and Bayat say it was another man, Olivier Adella, who killed Green during an attempted kidnapping. But prosecutor Bryan Abanto said Li and Bayat killed Green because she feared losing custody of their two daughters. Adella is in jail and will go to court once the jury trial wraps up.

[SBM]”
Jurors deliberating fate of Tiffany Li, real estate scion charged with murder of her children's father - Palo Alto Daily Post
 
Ed Walsh ABC7 News Bay Area
@EdWalshNews

Seven full days of deliberations but no verdicts in the case against Tiffany Li and Kaveh Bayat who are accused of killing Keith Green, the father of Li's two children in 2016. Jurors left the courthouse and will return tomorrow at 9am.
8:07 PM [ET] · Nov 6, 2019

Ed Walsh ABC7 News Bay Area on Twitter
 
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