‘Kind, non-violent’ killer who chopped Chinese tycoon into 108 pieces at Vancouver mansion is sentenced
- Li Zhao will serve another two years and four months behind bars for killing Gang Yuan in 2015, then ‘obliterating’ the body
- The judge said there was nothing in Zhao’s previous life that hinted at his ability to commit such a grisly crime
A killer who chopped a tycoon from China into 108 pieces at his Vancouver mansion has been sentenced to serve another two years and four months behind bars, having earlier been sensationally acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter.
Li Zhao, 60, had also been convicted in January of what Mr Justice Terence Schultes called the “obliteration” of the body of businessman Gang Yuan at the luxury home where both men lived, after hitting him with a hammer then shooting him on May 2, 2015.
At sentencing in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on Monday, Schultes described the killing and dismemberment of Yuan as out of character for Zhao, who was married to Yuan’s cousin and showed “apparently genuine remorse” for his gruesome actions. Intent to kill Yuan had not been proved, Schultes said.
“There is nothing in Mr Zhao’s previous 55 years of life that hinted at his capability to engage in such behaviour,” said Schultes. To those who provided character references for Zhao, his behaviour that day was at odds with the “warm, kind, non-violent and generous person they have come to know”, said the judge.
Schultes said that had Zhao not already spent so long behind bars, he would have sentenced him to seven years for manslaughter, and three years and six months on the charge of interfering with human remains, to be served consecutively.