bloodrayne
07-09-2006, 11:40 AM
Trial Involving Body Found In Storage Starts
Alleged marriage broker accused in woman's slaying
Redwood City, California - Xiu Li Jiang hoped a sham marriage to a U.S. citizen would let her escape the life of an illegal immigrant living in San Francisco's Tenderloin, working in a Mission Street massage parlor.
Two to three years after Bobby Tran allegedly arranged for Jiang to marry a local man, someone shot her to death, dismembered her body and sealed the pieces in a Daly City storage facility. No one found her until June 7, 2002 -- more than three years after the 22-year-old Jiang was reported missing.
Today, San Mateo County prosecutors are expected to begin laying out their case in a Redwood City courtroom against Tran, who they say murdered Jiang in a dispute over money after he brokered the fake marriage. Tran, 31, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors contend that Tran is a short-tempered, violence-prone con man and thief who profited from arranging sham marriages.
"It's the way he practices his business," Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach said Monday in ruling that prosecutors could present evidence that Tran threatened another woman who wanted her money back after he allegedly arranged a marriage for her.
Tran denies any involvement in Jiang's death in January 1999. In court documents, defense attorney Kevin Nowack dismissed as "pure speculation" the prosecution theory that Tran shot Jiang in her Turk Street apartment after she refused to put money in a joint account that Tran allegedly intended to plunder.
Tran has a host of prior arrests, including for kidnapping, felony assault, conspiracy, vehicle theft and forgery, court records show. He pleaded no contest in April to charges of damaging jail property and attempting to escape after he and another inmate were caught trying to use hacksaw blades to cut through their third-floor cell window at the county jail in downtown Redwood City, prosecutors said.
Tran's incarceration on commercial burglary charges in Santa Clara County led to Jiang's remains being found, because "Tran was unable to make payments on the storage locker," Daly City police Detective Gregg Oglesby wrote in court documents.
Employees at Shurgard Storage Center in Daly City auctioned off the contents of storage unit No. 8 to a new customer after the previous renter failed to pay the bill, court records show.
The new customers discovered Jiang's remains in a container wrapped in duct tape and garbage bags and resting on a mass of cat litter contained inside a bag. Investigators also found a saw blade.
An autopsy showed Jiang had been shot in the head and dismembered into nine pieces with a saw.
The defense has acknowledged in court documents that Tran possessed the driver's license used to rent the unit, although it listed his name as Zi Liang. Nowack declined to comment about the case, saying, "Anything I have to say about the Tran case, I'll say in court."
Tran met Jiang after she was smuggled into the United States from China in the 1990s, Oglesby said. Jiang unsuccessfully applied for political asylum, he said.
She adopted the name "Erica" and met Tran, a co-worker's boyfriend, while working at a Mission Street massage parlor, according to court documents. Jiang paid Tran $15,000 and owed him another $10,000 for a 1997 marriage he arranged with Jamie Sorina of Hayward, according to court documents.
"She wanted to be able to go home to visit her family," prosecutor Al Giannini said. "She wanted to work in the United States without fear of arrest and deportation."
Tran also instructed Jiang to put "significant money" into a joint account with Sorina to convince immigration authorities they were legitimate, and one of Jiang's customers gave her $10,000 for that account, prosecutors contend.
Jiang, though, became suspicious of Tran and never put the money in the account, Giannini said.
"Tran wanted the money in there so he could take it out," Giannini said. "All he would have had to do was prevail on the husband to take it out" or resort to "just plain forgery."
Tran's former girlfriend Ai Huang told police that Tran had admitted to her and a friend seeing Jiang the night she disappeared, court documents said.
"Tran told them not to report Jiang as a missing person," Huang told police. "She would just eventually return."
Alleged marriage broker accused in woman's slaying
Redwood City, California - Xiu Li Jiang hoped a sham marriage to a U.S. citizen would let her escape the life of an illegal immigrant living in San Francisco's Tenderloin, working in a Mission Street massage parlor.
Two to three years after Bobby Tran allegedly arranged for Jiang to marry a local man, someone shot her to death, dismembered her body and sealed the pieces in a Daly City storage facility. No one found her until June 7, 2002 -- more than three years after the 22-year-old Jiang was reported missing.
Today, San Mateo County prosecutors are expected to begin laying out their case in a Redwood City courtroom against Tran, who they say murdered Jiang in a dispute over money after he brokered the fake marriage. Tran, 31, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors contend that Tran is a short-tempered, violence-prone con man and thief who profited from arranging sham marriages.
"It's the way he practices his business," Superior Court Judge Barbara Mallach said Monday in ruling that prosecutors could present evidence that Tran threatened another woman who wanted her money back after he allegedly arranged a marriage for her.
Tran denies any involvement in Jiang's death in January 1999. In court documents, defense attorney Kevin Nowack dismissed as "pure speculation" the prosecution theory that Tran shot Jiang in her Turk Street apartment after she refused to put money in a joint account that Tran allegedly intended to plunder.
Tran has a host of prior arrests, including for kidnapping, felony assault, conspiracy, vehicle theft and forgery, court records show. He pleaded no contest in April to charges of damaging jail property and attempting to escape after he and another inmate were caught trying to use hacksaw blades to cut through their third-floor cell window at the county jail in downtown Redwood City, prosecutors said.
Tran's incarceration on commercial burglary charges in Santa Clara County led to Jiang's remains being found, because "Tran was unable to make payments on the storage locker," Daly City police Detective Gregg Oglesby wrote in court documents.
Employees at Shurgard Storage Center in Daly City auctioned off the contents of storage unit No. 8 to a new customer after the previous renter failed to pay the bill, court records show.
The new customers discovered Jiang's remains in a container wrapped in duct tape and garbage bags and resting on a mass of cat litter contained inside a bag. Investigators also found a saw blade.
An autopsy showed Jiang had been shot in the head and dismembered into nine pieces with a saw.
The defense has acknowledged in court documents that Tran possessed the driver's license used to rent the unit, although it listed his name as Zi Liang. Nowack declined to comment about the case, saying, "Anything I have to say about the Tran case, I'll say in court."
Tran met Jiang after she was smuggled into the United States from China in the 1990s, Oglesby said. Jiang unsuccessfully applied for political asylum, he said.
She adopted the name "Erica" and met Tran, a co-worker's boyfriend, while working at a Mission Street massage parlor, according to court documents. Jiang paid Tran $15,000 and owed him another $10,000 for a 1997 marriage he arranged with Jamie Sorina of Hayward, according to court documents.
"She wanted to be able to go home to visit her family," prosecutor Al Giannini said. "She wanted to work in the United States without fear of arrest and deportation."
Tran also instructed Jiang to put "significant money" into a joint account with Sorina to convince immigration authorities they were legitimate, and one of Jiang's customers gave her $10,000 for that account, prosecutors contend.
Jiang, though, became suspicious of Tran and never put the money in the account, Giannini said.
"Tran wanted the money in there so he could take it out," Giannini said. "All he would have had to do was prevail on the husband to take it out" or resort to "just plain forgery."
Tran's former girlfriend Ai Huang told police that Tran had admitted to her and a friend seeing Jiang the night she disappeared, court documents said.
"Tran told them not to report Jiang as a missing person," Huang told police. "She would just eventually return."