Heiress is acquitted of murder
REDWOOD CITY >> A jury Friday found Hillsborough real estate heiress Tiffany Li not guilty in the murder of her former partner but deadlocked over the verdict of her co-defendant and boyfriend Kaveh Bayat.
The outcome capped a tumultuous 3 1/2-year case highlighted by one of the highest bail amounts in U.S. history, a health-related
delay in the trial and the last-minute disqualification of the prosecution’s star witness.
Keith Green, the father of Li’s two children and her ex-partner, was found dead in Sonoma County in May 2016 from a single gunshot wound. Li, Bayat and a third person were accused of killing Green because prosecutors said she feared losing custody of her children.
A packed courtroom reacted to the verdict with “quiet tears” flowing from members of both Li’s and Green’s families, said San Mateo District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe.
Although jurors found Li not guilty of conspiring to murder Green, they could not come to an agreement over the same charges for Bayat, resulting in a mistrial.
The San Mateo District Attorney’s Office said it would review the case before deciding whether to retry Bayat.
Green went missing after he was last seen meeting with Li at the Millbrae Pancake House on April 28, 2016. Nearly two weeks later, his body was found shot through the neck and naked except for a pair of socks along a dirt road near Healdsburg.
Authorities alleged Li, 33, and Bayat, 32, murdered Green amid ongoing custody arguments.
The trial captured national attention in part because of Li’s wealth. Her
family, which made a fortune in real estate construction in China, posted one of the highest bails in U.S. history — putting up $66 million of cash and Bay Area properties as collateral.
Closing arguments in October largely came down to cellphone signals and surveillance images. Prosecutors argued that the last cellphone ping from Green’s phone came from Li’s Hillsborough 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 District Attorney’s Office over-interpreted evidence and presented an “unreasonable” circumstantial case against the pair. The defense 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.
Adella was initially charged in the killing but later reached a plea deal for a charge of accessory to murder in exchange for testimony against the other two.
That plea deal — and the damning testimony prosecutors had planned to get from Adella — were quashed abruptly in September
when Adella contacted his ex-girlfriend who was a defense witness, violating a court order. Adella previously told authorities that he helped move Green’s body because he was indebted to Li and Bayat for previous favors.
Still, Deputy District Attorney Bryan Abanto pushed forward with a murder theory in which Li, looking to end the custody dispute, conspired with her new boyfriend Bayat to kill Green. Abanto argued that Bayat sought to replace Green and to acquire the lavish lifestyle that came with being with Li.
Geoffrey Carr, the defense attorney for Li, said his client was unjustly suspected as soon as Green disappeared and that police and prosecutors ignored evidence that challenged their suspicions or exonerated the defendants. His closing remarks in October centered on how the evidence presented at trial, including blood evidence, did not definitively prove that there was a plot to murder Green but suggested that his death may have been the result of a kidnapping gone wrong.
Outside the courtroom on Friday, Carr told reporters that he would not “speculate on exactly what the jury was thinking.”
“I can say now to you what I would not say before for the last three and a half years,” he added. “My client wasn’t just not guilty, but innocent.”