Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #10 *Still Missing*

[kittythehare]

1. Fang said she didn't want Ms. Zhang to go to the U.S. because "Yingying was rather innocent" and "I was concerned about her safety." (7/18)
   
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2. 
   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   Said Ms. Zhang was worried about her younger brother, studied very hard and was a "very, very good friend." (6/18)
   
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   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   Next, prosecution played a video of Lisha Fang, another college friend of Ms. Zhang. Fang said Ms. Zhang became president of an environmental group while in college. (5/18)
   
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   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   Said her last conversation with Ms. Zhang was just a casual conversation and didn't remember details. "Nobody would have thought something like that could happen." (4/18)
   

 

[kittythehare]

1. 
   
   Then prosecution played a video from Xiao Zhang, a grad school roommate of Ms. Zhang. (11/18)
   
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2. 
   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   After she went missing, Fang said "I cried for three days," and felt like she was unable to do anything (10/18)
   
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   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   When she got to the U.S., Fang said Ms. Zhang realized her English wasn't as good as she thought and that transportation in Champaign isn't as convenient as in China. (9/18)
   
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   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 9m9 minutes ago
   But she said this was what Ms. Zhang had worked hard for, so she was happy for her. "When she encountered a new challenge, she would be very energetic." (8/18)
   

 

[kittythehare]

1. 
   
   Prosecution then played video of Ms. Zhang singing at a concert with her band the song "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne (14/18)
   
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   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 10m10 minutes ago
   "For a long time…I did not believe this was real. I felt that somewhere, she is out there," she said. "I'm still in shock." (13/18)
   
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3. 
   Ben Zigterman‏ @bzigterman 10m10 minutes ago
   She said when they went on trips, Ms. Zhang would be the leader, and she was the lead singer of a band she organized. (12/18)
   

 

[kittythehare]

"I was in complete denial," she said. "I just felt so heartbroken for quite a while. I often dreamed of our time together." (18/18)
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Ben Zigterman
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When Ms. Zhang went missing, Zhao thought maybe she was just lost, but then figured she would find a way to contact someone and wouldn't want her friends to worry. (17/18)
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Ben Zigterman
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And Zhao said Ms. Zhang wanted to study abroad on her own efforts and not burden her family, which is not wealthy. "She hoped to improve the life of her family," she said. (16/18)
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Then a video from Kaiyun Zhao, a grad school friend of Ms. Zhang, who said when Ms. Zhang went home, she would return with food for her friends cooked by her grandma. (15/18)

 

[kittythehare]

A prosecutor is telling a federal jury that convicted a former University of Illinois doctoral student last month in the kidnapping and killing a Chinese scholar deserves the death penalty because the crime was “cold, calculated, cruel and months in the making.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Nelson on the first day of the penalty phase of told the jury about how Brendt Christensen not only brutally killed Yingying Zhang in June 2017, he hid her body and has deprived her family the chance to give her a proper burial in China. He said “there will be no closure” for the family.

The Latest: Jury to hear from mother of slain scholar | WTOP

 

[dm92]

Keep an eye on exhibits list for updates.. apparently a clip of YY singing the song 'Complicated' by avril Levine has been heard by the jury.
(exhibit list can be updated at any time, sometimes happens immediately after court, sometimes takes days..

I think they played that clip at the one-year memorial anniversary they held on campus in 2018. That was when they announced the plans for the memorial garden

 

[kittythehare]

Brendt Christensen trial: Prosecutors conducted secret Chinese interviews for death hearing, defense says

 

[kittythehare]

I think they played that clip at the one-year memorial anniversary they held on campus in 2018. That was when they announced the plans for the memorial garden

They played it today.

 

[kittythehare]

Prosecutor: Death penalty warranted in scholar's killing

“There will be no burial. There will be no closure,” he told the jury that last month found Christensen guilty. “You will see the anguish.”

@Webthrush
The 30-year-old Christensen could testify during the hearing that is expected to last several days. If he does, one big question is whether he will reveal what he did with Zhang’s body, which has never been found, as part of an effort to convince jurors to spare his life and sentence him instead to life in prison without the possibility of parole.



I imagine that's speculative.
His testimony will be insincere because he is drugged and a habitual liar.
Anything he chooses to say, if he speaks will be merely in an effort to save his own *advertiser censored*.
If he does not testify it will be because his defense believes tha above too and he is insincere.

 

[kittythehare]

The 30-year-old Christensen might testify. And in an effort to save his life, he could possibly reveal what he did with Zhang’s body, which has never been found.
The Latest: Jury To Hear From Mother Of Slain Scholar

speculative too, I imagine.

 

[dm92]

They played it today.

Yes. They played it today. I believe it is the same clip that CSSA played at the ceremony commemorating the one year anniversary of her disappearance.

 

[dm92]

Brendt Christensen trial: Prosecutors conducted secret Chinese interviews for death hearing, defense says

“Secret Chinese interviews?”

What? Did the defense think they were entitled to go along and cross-examine them?

 

[kittythehare]

“Secret Chinese interviews?”

What? Did the defense think they were entitled to go along and cross-examine them?

high drama, I tell ya!
It's an insult to the entire justice system,imo.
All their tactics are completely overboard and now they get to slip in his childhood history and mental health despite etc etc etc.
prosecution should apply for a mistrial and hang him 3 ways.

 

[kittythehare]

Another friend, Ye Cai, said when she first met Zhang in their dorm, she was struck by a “skinny, very smiley girl,” and the pair soon became close friends. She recalled Zhang was very close to her family and called them frequently. Hearing this, Zhang’s brother got up and left the courtroom in tears.

Cai also read aloud some of the many messages the pair swapped over WeChat, the popular Chinese social media platform.

“How big is the world?” Zhang wrote in one of the messages. “I will measure it with my feet.”

The victim’s fiance, Xiaolin Hou, told the jury the couple met while undergraduates at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.

“She’s smart, she’s brave, she’s optimistic, she’s the best girl I ever met,” he said.

defense-
“No one who grew up with Brendt would have ever guessed that this is how his life would end up,” Julie Brain, one of his lawyers, told the jury. “This was a man secretly struggling with mental health his whole life.”

She showed the jury photographs of Christensen dressed in his Boy Scouts and football uniforms

(glad I missed those!!!)

Source-U.S. seeks death penalty for 'calculated' murder of grad student from China - Reuters

 

[dm92]

high drama, I tell ya!
It's an insult to the entire justice system,imo.
All their tactics are completely overboard and now they get to slip in his childhood history and mental health despite etc etc etc.
prosecution should apply for a mistrial and hang him 3 ways.

The help they had from Chinese law enforcement was probably simply help setting up the interviews and recording them. Any other help was probably earlier in the investigation; back when this was all happening before his arrest, Chinese investigators, with input from the FBI, were probably interviewing friends and associates of Yingying to determine if there was anything in her background that might suggest something about her disappearance -did she owe anyone money? did she engage in risky sexual behavior? did she ever mention any desires/plans/fantasies about disappearing and starting a new life? any other strange/abnormal/risky behavior? Back in the initial weeks, spokespeople for investigators here were saying that they were looking at multiple possible scenarios, and that they hadn't ruled anything in or anything out. While they were monitoring Christensen, they were probably doing all this just to make sure "i's" were all dotted and "t's" were all crossed; typical stuff that would probably go on in most missing person cases. Doing all that, they probably found absolutely *nothing* to suggest YY was an active participant in her disappearance, and further cemented investigators' belief that they had found the person responsible for her disappearance in Christensen. My guess that all this is even detailed in law enforcement reports that the defense surely received as discovery.

"Secret Chinese interviews," my *advertiser censored*........

 

[Niner]

Tuesday, July 9th:
*Penalty Phase of Trial continues (Day 2) (@ 9:30am @ CT) - IL - Yingying Zhang (26) (missing on June 9, 2017, Urbana; not found) - *Brendt A. Christensen (28) indicted (6/30/17) on kidnapping (Federal charge) resulting in death of Yingying & 2 counts of giving false statements to FBI. Plead not guilty. Held without bond. DA will seek DP.
Trial started 6/3/19 with jury selection & took until 6/11/19 to pick a jury. 12 jurors & 6 alternates. (7 men & 5 women). Trial ended 6/24/19. Jurors reached a verdict in less than 2 hours. Christensen was found GUILTY of kidnapping resulting in the death of Yingying Zhang. Also found GUILTY on two counts of making false statements to the FBI. Penalty phase trial starts on 7/8.
Jury Selection Days 1 to 7 (6/3/19 to 6/7/19) & Trial days 1 to 9 (6/12/19 to 6/24/19) & Court info (7/2/19 to 7/5/19 reference post #464 here:
GUILTY - IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #10 *Still Missing*
7/8/19 Penalty Phase Day 1 Motions Hearing: Victim Impact Evidence Motion: Judge denied all of the defense's motions to ban video testimony of Yingying's friends & family. Videos expected to play this afternoon before jury. Video testimonies of Yingying's friends/family are in Chinese, recorded in China. Testimonies will include witnesses' statements about Yingying, her personality, observations about her & their loss without her. Testimonies will NOT include comments about Brendt Christensen, the crime or the appropriate punishment. The judge will allow video of Yingying singing to be played in court this afternoon, saying it'll be the only opportunity for the jury to hear from the victim. Discussed proposed jury instructions. Judge also allowed clips of Christensen making jail calls which the prosecution said show him asserting his innocence, claiming gov't didn't find anything & that the case is political. Prosecution wants to use these to show lack of remorse. Judge Shadid said he'll allow video of Ms. Zhang's mother to be played, which the prosecution said was recorded Saturday. Prosecutions said they'll be 10-20 minutes long each, and that they've cut out portions of the friends talking about Christensen's punishment.
In front of Jurors: Opening statements by both sides. State witnesses: Zhang's fiance, Xiaolin Hou (who testified in person) & Jury saw some of the videotaped interviews with Zhang's friends. 3 FBI language specialists who confirmed the validity of translated videotaped testimony given by a handful of Yingying Zhang's friends and roommates. Jury heard four videos of interviews with her college friends from China. Zhang's college roommate Lisha Fang. College roommate, Ye Cai. Xiao Zhang, a grad school roommate. Kaiyun Zhao, a grad school friend. Prosecution then played video of Ms. Zhang singing at a concert with her band the song "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne. Penalty phase continues on 7/9.

 

[tresir2012]

Showed no dangerousness while in prison for 2 years???!!??
Know why? Because there are no 100# females there. I more n more wanna see the death penalty for this punk a$$ ***!!

And he was medicated at least initially IIRC it was reported he was depressed.

 

[kittythehare]

When Christensen was a kid, she said he was “polite, quiet, never got in trouble.”

In kindergarten, he was placed in a gifted program, but even at a young age, she said he showed signs of mental problems.

Hou will continue testifying Tuesday, and prosecutors said they may wrap up their case today or early Wednesday.
After that, the defense will call witnesses and present their evidence.

The sentencing phase is expected to last at least a week.

Christensen sentencing: 'The only question that remains is when his death occurs'

 

[roche.analisa]

Thank you, @kittythehare!

 

[Spellbound]

Robert Dunham@RDunhamDPIC
7m
Federal prosecutors begin penalty phase of Illinois capital trial of #BrendtChristensen for 'calculated' murder of grad student from China