IT IS THE CROWN’S THEORY THAT 40-YEAR-OLD XIU TENG KILLED HER SPOUSE, DONG HUANG, FOR THE LUCRATIVE DEATH BENEFITS ON INSURANCE POLICIES SHE HAD TAKEN OUT ON HIS LIFE.

Bizarre murder trial approaches finish line

The recalcitrant accused killer Xiu Teng, charged with first-degree murder in the February 2012 death of her husband, continued her bizarre and argumentative defence in Toronto courtroom on Thursday by repeatedly referring to the judge as “Your Majesty.”

The furious Teng, who is representing herself, was slated to begin her closing address to the jurors after prosecutor Josh Levy finished his.

But despite reminders from Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian MacDonnell that such addresses are meant to review the evidence and suggest theories of the crime and not occasions for speechifying, she immediately breached just about every one of the directives MacDonnell had given.

“Your Majesty,” she said snidely, “I need a defence lawyer!” As the judge tried to still her, Teng railed, “You deprive me of natural rights! I need a defence lawyer before you say anything further! I need a defence lawyer! And you segregate me!”

As usual, she was accompanied by a court-provided Mandarin interpreter; as usual, she ignored the interpreter to hector the judge in her accented but enraged English.

Again, MacDonnell attempted to interrupt her to remind her of the rules around closing jury addresses, but all he got out of his mouth was, “To be clear …”

Teng snapped, voice thick with sarcasm, “To be clear, you are illegal judge and what you said right now is illegal!”

At that point, the judge briefly dismissed the jurors, who had just entered the courtroom four minutes earlier.From a nearby room equipped with audio and visual connections to the court, Teng was at a distance as the trial continued without her for several hours.

MacDonnell recalled the jurors, told them Teng has a right to be present “throughout the entirety of the trial,” but that it was a right subject to some rules.

When an accused person “misbehaves” such that it’s impossible to continue with her in the room, he said, the Criminal Code allows for her removal.

The judge also corrected several aspects of what Teng said in the jurors’ presence: She had not been prevented from calling witnesses, as she claimed, but in fact had been given multiple opportunities to do so, if only she would identify her witnesses. She refused.

“It is not correct to imply she’s been prevented” from calling a defence, MacDonnell said.

Similarly, he said, “She said I should give her a defence lawyer. She implied today and on other occasions that she’s been denied a defence lawyer.

“That is not correct,” he said.

At that point Teng announced, via a court officer from her separate room, that she needed a bathroom break. The judge gave her one.

Prosecutor Levy then told the jurors that the Crown’s theory of the crime was that the 40-year-old Teng killed her spouse, Dong Huang, for the lucrative death benefits on insurance policies she had taken out on his life.

Teng worked at London Life Insurance Company, and in the weeks before Huang died, took out policies worth between $1.6 million and $2 million on him.

Huang’s body wasn’t discovered until Feb. 29 when one of the couple’s landlords became suspicious Teng was moving out of the basement flat in their Scarborough house without paying rent.

The landlords later checked out the apartment and spotted, in a storage closet, the shape of a human foot under a blanket and plastic sheets. They called 911.

But Levy said his theory is that it was likely in the early hours of Feb. 24 that Teng set her deliberate plan into action — killing Huang first by incapacitating him with blows to the head and the administration of a sedative, binding his hands and feet, whereupon, Levy said, “She then strangled him to death,” likely with a length of thin green twine.

Teng had first claimed Huang was in Hong Kong, and then, when the landlords saw his body, that he had died of a heart attack.

But as the jurors have learned, an autopsy showed he had no signs of cardiac disease and had in fact died of ligature strangulation.

Teng had also amended insurance policies on her own life, and named her mother as the beneficiary; she earned about $50,000 in commission and bonuses for those policies.

Levy said the evidence against Teng was overwhelming.

When he finished his address, she returned to the courtroom, and MacDonnell asked if she wanted to also speak.

“I declare I reserve all legal rights I have!” Teng yelled, then complained there was only half an hour left in the court day. The judge reminded her he’d told her she could begin Thursday, but finish Friday, and she sniped, “It depends on your emotion.”

Then, looking right at the jurors, she said, “This could not be called closing because you (meaning the judge) didn’t give me a chance to open.”

She told the jurors that they shouldn’t care about anyone else’s opinions, and must be “united as one judge … You make own decision of facts,” she said. “Keep this in your heart.”

Then, as abruptly as she began, Teng said, “That’s all until tomorrow.”