On September 16, the "Henan billionaire businessman homicide case" was heard by the Fuyang Intermediate People's Court and the defendant Yang Zhicai was sentenced to death and deprived of political rights for life for the crime of intentional homicide; the defendant Wang Fuwei was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment for the crime of intentional homicide. fifteen years. The plaintiff Mei Chunrui (the father of the victim Mei Li in this case) said that he was satisfied with the sentence of the two defendants, but felt unreasonable about the civil compensation. “The family members will decide whether to appeal after consultation.”
The unnamed female corpse appeared in the wheat field
On the morning of March 12, 1999, on the way to Linquan County, Jieshou City, a corpse was found by passers-by and called the police. The corpse was bloody and bloody, and the right head was deflated. According to forensic identification, the woman died of a craniocerebral contusion caused by a severe blunt blow. The police recorded the corpse as follows: age was about 26 years old, the body was 1.65 meters long, round face, slightly fat, white skin, double eyelids, eyeliner tattoos, short hair, about 10 cm long... After finding the body,
, The Jieshou police conducted a large number of visits and investigations, but the source of the body was still not found. Not long after, the body was cremated and the ashes were kept in the funeral home in Jieshou City.
Two reports
separated by hundreds of kilometers in September 2009, Xinyang police in Henan Province received a report stating that Mei Li, a woman from Xixian County, Henan was killed, and the suspect was local wealthy businessman Yang Zhicai and his nephew Wang Fuwei. In November of the same year, the Jieshou police received a report from a woman named Liu Lefang, who claimed that her second uncle, Yang Zhicai, had killed Mei Li under the name of "the chief account of the detour" and Wang Fuwei was involved in the crime.
In 2012, the police in Henan and Anhui linked the two reports. Anhui police found Mei Li’s ex-husband Shen Xiaoming (pseudonym) who had reported the case in Henan to identify the body. In a pile of photos of female corpses, he immediately recognized the ex-wife Mei Li, who had disappeared for 13 years.
Liu Lefang said when reporting the case that Yang Zhicai opened an eye clinic in Zhaoji Township, Huaibin County, Xinyang, where she and Mei Li were both helping. At the time of the incident, she, Yang Zhicai and Mei Li set off from Zhaoji Township to Linquan County for medicine. That night, Yang Zhicai said that he would take Mei Li out for the bill. But when he came back, his cousin Wang Fuwei was added, but he didn't meet Mei Li. After repeated inquiries, Yang Zhicai told her that Mei Li was killed by them. Later, Yang Zhicai told her that this matter was only known to the three of them and was not allowed to be disclosed. Speaking of the reason for reporting Yang Zhicai ten years later, Liu Lefang said that because the family was poisoned, it made her feel scared.
The police preliminarily concluded that the unnamed female corpse found in Zhuanji Town on March 12, 1999 is likely to be Mei Li.
In September 2012, the suspects Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei were arrested and brought to justice. When the billionaire
was arrested and released after being arrested, Wang Fuwei admitted that he knew he was arrested for the murder of Meili more than a decade ago. He said that he had done the case with his uncle Yang Zhicai, and described the process of killing Mei Li with Yang Zhicai.
However, Yang Zhicai did not admit that he killed Meili at first. In the second questioning, he changed his mind and admitted that he had been suspected of killing Mei Li with his nephew Wang Fuwei. Since then, during the police interrogation, he also made multiple confessions of guilt. The process of Yang Zhicai's confession to the police was roughly the same as Wang Fuwei said. As for the motive of committing the crime, he said that he and Mei Li’s ex-husband Shen Xiaoming were friends. After Mei Li divorced Shen Xiaoming, she found out that she was pregnant, so she was entrusted to his clinic by Shen Xiaoming.
Ke Meili has a bad life style and often brings men back overnight. This has affected her niece Liu Lefang, and other men's wives threatened to smash his clinic. So, he wanted to teach Mei Li and drive her away.
On January 4, 2013, the Jieshou City Public Security Bureau concluded its investigation and transferred the case to the Procuratorate for prosecution. On August 2, 2013, the Fuyang City Procuratorate released Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei on bail pending trial.
However, on October 21, 2013, the People's Procuratorate of Fuyang City decided not to prosecute Yang and Wang due to unclear facts and insufficient evidence. The prosecution believes that the fact that Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei illegally deprived others of their lives objectively exists, but the existing evidence cannot confirm that the deceased was Mei Li.
Jieshou police carried out thisThe explanation stated that DNA technology had not been developed in Anhui Province in 1999, and no DNA test was performed on the source of the corpse of the "1999.03.12 murder of an unknown woman". By 2013, the corpse had been cremated, and the remains extracted at the scene could no longer be tested for DNA from the corpse.
withdrawn confession
after multiple guilty confessions
It is worth mentioning that when the case entered the police again in 2012, Yang Zhicai from Linquan was already a well-known "billionaire" in Xinyang. The "Jinxia Beauty Salon" run by him and his wife Liu Jinxia is the leader of Xinyang's local beauty industry.
On October 10, 2018, the Jieshou police obtained key evidence of the case and re-extracted DNA from the remaining blood in the soil where the crime occurred, confirming Mei Li's identity. It is precisely because of this key evidence that Yang Zhicai, who was released in 2013, and Wang Fuwei were arrested again on November 9, 2018. After he was brought to justice this time, Yang Zhicai made another confession of guilt.
On August 29, 2019, the case opened for trial, and the defendants Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei were prosecuted by Fuyang City People’s Procuratorate for intentional homicide. According to the prosecution’s indictment, on March 11, 1999, the defendant Yang Zhicai asked Liu Lefang to take the victim Mei Li to Linquan on the grounds of taking medicine, and then gathered the defendant Wang Fuwei to Linquan County to murder Mei Li. That night Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei deceived Mei Li to the east of Chenhuanggou, Dongliu Administrative Village, Zhuanji Town, Jieshou City, on the grounds of defrauding the main account. Wang Fuwei used the steel pipe prepared in advance to hit Meili’s head from behind. After knocking Meili down, Yang Zhicai took the steel pipe and hit Meili’s head a few times, and then used a rope to pull Meili’s neck. He dragged it to the wheat field on the west side of Chenhuanggou and fled the scene. When the court opened, Yang Zhicai retracted his confession in court, claiming that his confession was a false statement made by threats, and Wang Fuwei pleaded guilty.
The principal culprit was sentenced to death and his accomplice was sentenced to 15 years.
On September 16, the Fuyang Intermediate People’s Court found that the defendants Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei had conspired to deliberately and illegally deprive others of their lives, and the two defendants’ actions constituted intentional homicide. , Should be punished in accordance with the law, the accusation of the public prosecution agency established the economic losses caused to the plaintiff in the incidental civil lawsuit by the two criminals, and should be compensated in accordance with the law.
Yang Zhicai planned homicide, premeditated carefully, had determined homicide intentions, and had cruel homicide methods. He reversed his confession in court and refused to plead guilty, subjectively malignant and socially harmful and should be severely punished. Wang Fuwei was instigated by Yang Zhicai to commit the homicide. Although he was the direct perpetrator, his overall role in this case was smaller than that of Yang Zhicai. Minors who had just reached the age of 16 at the time of the case can be punished lightly according to the law, and he truthfully confessed He and Yang Zhicai's criminal facts and voluntarily pleaded guilty in court, which constituted a confession. The attitude of confession and repentance was better, and the punishment could be lightened according to law.
For the civil compensation part, the request for funeral expenses filed by the plaintiff in the attached civil litigation shall be supported. It shall be calculated based on the 6-month total of the average monthly salary of the employees in the previous year at the place where the people’s court is located, which is 37189 yuan. The litigation claims for transportation expenses, accommodation expenses, lost work expenses, maintenance, support expenses, storage of corpses and caskets are unfounded in law and are not supported.
The court finally ruled that the defendant Yang Zhicai was guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced to death and deprived of political rights for life; the defendant Wang Fuwei was guilty of intentional homicide and sentenced to 15 years in prison; the defendants Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei compensated the plaintiffs for economic losses in a civil lawsuit 37189 yuan. The plaintiff Mei Chunrui (the father of the victim Mei Li in this case) said that he was satisfied with the sentence of the two defendants, but felt unreasonable for the civil compensation. “The family members will decide whether to appeal after consultation.”
Yingzhou Evening News reporter Chu Nannan
Brief introduction of the case:
On March 12, 1999, an unnamed female body was found in Jieshou City, and the police determined that he was murdered. Although the search was posted by the announcement and the surrounding counties and cities assisted in investigation, his identity has not been determined. Soon after, the body was cremated.
On November 19, 2009, a woman named Liu Lefang went to the Jieshou Public Security Bureau to report that her second uncle, Yang Zhicai, had killed her companion Meili about ten years ago in the name of "the chief account of the detour".
2012At the end of September, 50-year-old Yang Zhicai and 29-year-old Wang Fuwei were arrested by the police in Wuxi. When interrogated by the Wuxi police, the two confessed separately: They killed Mei Li in a joint venture at the head of Jieshou in 1999.
On January 4, 2013, the police investigation was completed and the case was transferred to the procuratorate for prosecution.
On October 21, 2013, the Fuyang City Procuratorate decided not to prosecute Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei on the grounds that the facts were unclear, the evidence was insufficient, and the conditions for prosecution were not met.
In 2018, the police found the female body's DNA from the mud at the crime scene and confirmed that the female body was the victim, Mei Li, and the two suspects were arrested again.
On August 29, 2019, the "Henan Billionaire Merchant Murder Case" was heard by the Intermediate People's Court of Fuyang City, Anhui Province in Jieshou. The defendants Yang Zhicai and Wang Fuwei were prosecuted by the Fuyang City People’s Procuratorate for intentional homicide.