What happened to the man who killed his wife in America and is now on trial in Yangzhou?

At nine o'clock in the morning on May 4th. Yangzhou Intermediate People's Court of Jiangsu Province. With the presiding judge's order to "take the defendant Li Bo to court", Li Bo, the defendant who killed his wife in the United States and fled back to China, was tried by the court under the escort of two bailiffs.

background

1 1 Years ago, there was a murder case in Los Angeles. After the murder, the murderer fled back to China, and the murder case is still pending. The United States calls it an "unsolved case", and the pressure on the American police has doubled. In order to crack down on the same criminal target, according to the consultation between the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security of China and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States, the Chinese side took over the case.

However, the handling of transnational homicide cases is extremely difficult, which is related to China's national image and national interests. The result not only tests the confidence and ability of China government and public security organs to safeguard the personal rights and interests of overseas Chinese, but also concerns the future of police cooperation between the two countries. Since the United States accepted the case, the China police have overcome the obstacles of the judicial system with a rigorous and pragmatic working attitude. With the full cooperation of the American police, they have re-explored the crime scene, organized investigation experiments, successfully transformed the evidence and improved the evidence chain. The investigation of this case ended, which successfully crossed a gap between Chinese and American police, and was praised as "a model of criminal judicial cooperation between China and the United States" by people in the industry.

The process of crime

At 7: 30 p.m., the residents of Los Angeles, USA, who were enjoying a happy time did not expect that a trash can floating in the middle of Whittier Park would trigger a murder case, thus opening an ice-breaking journey of criminal judicial cooperation between Chinese and American police.

Because the trash can is located in the middle of the lake, park managers can't salvage it until it floats to the shore on June 9, 2007. Through the gap in the rope, the park ranger saw a body in the bucket and immediately reported it to the police.

The Los Angeles police rushed to the scene for salvage, investigation and evidence collection. Due to the low geographical latitude of Los Angeles, the average temperature in winter is still around 10 degrees, and the body has rotted after the lake is poured into the bucket. On June 65438+1October 19, the LAPD successfully extracted the fingerprint of the corpse and confirmed that the deceased was Gao (female, 26 years old, from Yangzhou, Jiangsu), a citizen of China.

Gao and her husband Li Bo came to the United States through professional immigration more than ten years ago, and Li Bo worked as a chef in a restaurant. In the face of his wife's body, Li Bo was heartbroken. He told the police that on the afternoon of June 5438+February 65438+March, his wife sent her friend to the airport and never came back. This is completely consistent with the activities of the last day of Gao identified by the US police. This day, later proved to be a high death day.

Since then, according to the available information, the Los Angeles police have launched a large number of investigations. Around the activities of the deceased before his death, he visited his former colleagues and relatives and friends of both husband and wife many times, and the suspects were excluded one by one. Although the police have doubts about Li Bo, they have never obtained more direct evidence. Three years have passed in a blink of an eye, and this murder case is like a stone on Brian's mind. He is about to retire, and he doesn't want to leave any regrets in his police career. It's 20 10, and the case has some clues.

In June 5438+10, Li Bo was arrested for theft in Northern California, USA. His biological materials were consistent with the physical evidence on the spot, and he was suspected of murder. Brian was very surprised at this discovery.

There are new clues in the old murder case, and Brian doesn't want to give up. In order to improve the evidence, he wants to take further evidence from the deceased's hometown. 20 13 12, a request for assistance from LAPD was sent to the desk of the head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security through the Chinese Embassy in the United States. "Do your best to cooperate with the US police to collect evidence and bring the deceased to justice as soon as possible!" The person in charge asked.

On the morning of February+65438 10, the American policemen Brian and Amy, who were in charge of the case, came to the hometown of the deceased with the cooperation of the public security organs in Jiangsu Province, Yangzhou City and Jiangdu District, and asked Gao's parents in detail. Brian found that Li Bo lied to the American police on many key issues. After further work, the US police accused the suspect Li Bo of committing two felonies of murder and rape in Los Angeles from June 5438 to February 65438, 2006.

On July 2014 16, the California High Court issued an arrest warrant against the suspect Li Bo.

Brian is not satisfied with the progress of the case. Because the investigation found that Li Bo had returned to China in May 20 10.

As we all know, according to China's extradition law, since Li Bo is a citizen of China, it is impossible for China to extradite Li Bo to the United States. The American police could not go directly to China to catch the murderer, and the progress of solving the case was blocked again. Brian regained his confidence when he thought of the full cooperation given by the China police when he obtained evidence in China last time.

After half a year, the Ministry of Public Security once again received a letter from the US police requesting the transfer of the case.

Overcoming difficulties, the case made a major breakthrough.

The 7-day trip to the United States was arduous and fruitful, but the acceptance of the murder case in Los Angeles by the China Working Group was only the beginning, and a lot of tedious and meticulous translation, verification, analysis and verification were carried out in Jiangsu, Yangzhou and Jiangdu public security organs.

1October 26, 20 14, 10, the day after China's working group returned to China, elite police forces such as criminal investigation and legal system gathered in Jiangdu to set up a special investigation team.

The urgent task is to complete the translation of the case file. All the evidence materials handed over by the United States are in English, which is very professional and difficult to read. In accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, the task force hired institutions and personnel with Grade II English translation qualifications to work overtime for comprehensive translation. When translators encounter professional vocabulary, they need to communicate with the police urgently. In order to ensure the quality of translation and save time, investigators live with translators. After repeated discussions, careful choice of words, and consulting the criminal investigation technical experts of Jiangsu Provincial Public Security Bureau, a Chinese material with more than 300 pages10.5 million words was released half a year later.

Translation is only the first step in translating evidence from English into Chinese. According to the provisions of China's criminal law, the witness testimony, expert conclusion and investigation record provided by the United States can only point to Li Bo's suspicion of major murder, but the basis for identification is not sufficient, and the investigation of the case is still very difficult. Therefore, it is the most time-consuming and crucial step for the working group to transform the evidence collected by the US into legal evidence that meets the legal requirements of China.

To this end, the case-handling organ organized the backbone of the case, reviewed the case file materials in detail, and after being familiar with the work of the US side and the evidence of the whole case, put forward some unavoidable specific problems in the work of evidence transformation and acceptance, focused on solving the legality of the evidence source and evidence transformation, and put forward guiding opinions, which provided a "road map" for the next investigation work of the task force.

According to the deployment, once the evidence chain of peripheral investigation is formed, the arrest can be carried out. Since then, the task force has closely investigated and controlled Li Bo's actions and followed them for several days. 2065438+On September 9, 2005, in front of a residential area in Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, Li Bo gave in easily.

Li Bo had been questioned by American police for many times before, but he never confessed the facts of the crime. After the American police returned Gao's body, Li Bo thought for a moment. The body was gone, and the evidence was gone, so he could rest easy. During this period, he got married again and gave birth to a child. He never imagined that after killing his wife in the United States for more than 9 years, he was finally planted in the hands of China police.

Although he had a strong ability to resist trial, in the face of strong policy intentions and a series of evidence from pre-trial experts of Yangzhou Public Security Bureau, Li Bo finally lost after 37 days of tenacious resistance.

Li Bo confessed that in 2002, the couple came to Los Angeles as professional immigrants, and they worked hard for their dreams. Later, I studied English in high school, got a driver's license, and wanted to stay in the United States to start a business. He doesn't care more and more about Li Bo who is used to the status quo and doesn't want to make progress. Since then, the two sides have been arguing constantly, and Gao has repeatedly threatened to divorce, which has led to an escalation of contradictions. On the afternoon of June 5438+February 65438+March 2006, there was a quarrel between them. In a rage, Li Bo killed Gao and then dumped his body.

The irrefutable evidence, together with the confession of the suspect Li Bo, further strengthened all the evidence of China and the United States. 20 15 10 15 approved by the people's procuratorate of Jiangdu district, Yangzhou city, Jiangdu police arrested Li Bo according to law.

Deepen cooperation, improve evidence and achieve iron case

According to the law of China, although the suspect has been on the case, both the crime scene and the insider are in the United States, and they need to go to the United States for investigation and evidence collection. On 20 16 65438+ 10/7, the China police liaison officer in the United States negotiated with the American police and prosecutors to open a green channel for the China task force to handle the case.

Only 2 1 day is left before the Spring Festival, a traditional festival in China. Time is tight and the task is heavy. In addition, there are many uncertainties in the handling of transnational cases. After China's task force arrived in Los Angeles, a police officer group meeting was held overnight, and a group of nine people were divided into field investigation group, witness interview group and material evidence collection group to start their work.

The next day, US time 20 16 65438+ 10/7, LAPD. After listening to the introduction that it took Chinese personnel more than a year to basically complete the transformation of American evidence, successfully arrested the suspect and obtained a confession, the police station suddenly boiled, and all police officers stood up and applauded to express their respect and gratitude to their police colleagues in China. They said that they would fully assist in the investigation and evidence collection this time.

At the lakeside of Whittier Park, the working group, accompanied by American police, re-surveyed the first scene of the murder, the location and route of dumping the body; After several days of searching, the police found other important evidence. After that, the working group conducted three investigation experiments to find out that Li Bo objectively had the time to kill and dump the body and the tools to transport the body, and comprehensively demonstrated some details of the crime explained in Li Bo's confession, which played a role in finding out the case, reinforcing the evidence and eliminating reasonable doubts.

In Temple City Police Department, Los Angeles County, under the auspices of American police, several key witnesses came to the scene to take notes one by one, verify relevant evidence materials, and improve the evidence chain of the whole case. In order to adapt to the relevant provisions of China law, the US organized police officers such as Brian and Amy to sign and confirm all the evidence handed over one by one, and provided more than 30 qualification certificates of forensic medicine, toxicology and DNA identification institutions and personnel, which fulfilled China's requirements for evidence conversion and acceptance and laid a solid foundation for future litigation.

During the China Working Group's stay in the United States, Steve, the senior police officer in charge of the case of the Los Angeles County Homicide Investigation Bureau, directly commanded three policemen to cooperate with the Chinese side throughout the whole process, working overtime for two nights and a rest day continuously to ensure that the Chinese side completed the task as scheduled. Every time the China Working Group parks a rented car on the side of the road, Steve will put his business card on the windshield. He said that this shows that it is a vehicle used by American police to ensure safety. "This case is in China, and I must come to the China court to attend the audit." Steve said.

The 9-day forensic trip to the United States will soon end. The Chinese working group not only gained a wealth of evidence materials, but also planted a profound friendship between the Chinese and American police.

The head of the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security said that although it is different from the US police in terms of organizational leadership, service command and legal system, both sides have achieved good results in cracking down on cross-border crimes, especially in investigating serious violent cases such as homicide, which is of important demonstration significance for further deepening cross-border police cooperation between China and the United States.