‘Completely normal’ man who chopped Chinese millionaire Yuan Gang into 108 pieces found guilty of manslaughter in Vancouver
- Zhao Li had faced a murder charge but judge said it had not been proven that he intended to kill Yuan when he shot him
- Killer said he dismembered Yuan ‘like a bear’, following a fatal argument in which Yuan said he wanted to marry Zhao’s TV star daughter
A man who killed a Chinese millionaire then chopped him into 108 pieces in his Vancouver mansion has been found not guilty of the businessman’s murder, after a judge ruled that the intent to kill had not been proved.
British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Terence Schultes instead found Zhao Li, 59, guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter, as well as interfering with human remains.
Outside the court on Tuesday, Zhao’s lawyer Ian Donaldson praised the ruling and said his client was a “completely normal” man, whose actions on May 2, 2015, were considered “unthinkable” by those who knew him.
Zhao, an experienced hunter, did not dispute having shot dead Yuan Gang, 42, with a rifle in the driveway of his home, nor that he then cut Yuan’s body into 108 pieces in the garage, putting the remains in plastic bags. Yuan and Zhao both lived in the home, with Zhao’s wife Li Xioming, who is Yuan’s cousin.
But Zhao’s lawyers said he was provoked when Yuan told Zhao that he wanted to marry Zhao’s daughter, Florence Zhao, then a 26-year-old reality TV performer who starred in the show Ultra Rich Asian Girls and regarded Yuan as her uncle. She was already married to another man at the time.