US man who killed Chinese wife Mengqi Ji faces trial for abusing their daughter
- Joseph Elledge has been charged with three felonies involving the child, who was one year old when her mother was murdered
- Police say they found photos of the girl’s bruised body while investigating Ji’s disappearance in 2019
A US man who was convicted last year of killing his wife and burying her body will face another trial this year on charges that he abused the couple’s young daughter.
Joseph Elledge has pleaded not guilty to three felonies involving his daughter, who was one year old when her mother was killed.
Elledge was convicted on November 11 of second-degree murder in the death of Mengqi Ji, a 28-year-old Chinese woman he married while they were studying at the University of Missouri.
He was sentenced in January to 28 years in prison.
Elledge buried his wife’s body in a park near Columbia after she died in October 2019. Her body was not found until March 2021. Elledge has said Ji’s death was accidental.
The abuse charges were filed after a Columbia police investigation that started after Ji disappeared.
Elledge was arrested October 25, 2019, after police said they found iPad photos of his daughter’s bruised body, the Columbia Missourian reported.
He was charged with abuse or neglect of a child, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree domestic assault.
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During a hearing on Monday, Boone County Circuit Judge Kevin Crane rejected a request by Elledge’s defence lawyer, John O’Connor, that the trial be moved because of extensive media coverage of the murder trial.
Jurors will be brought in from Warren County.
Crane said he would set a date for a four-day trial depending on lawyers’ schedules.
