Driver on trial for murder
By Wang Qingchu |
March 24, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A STUDENT who stabbed a woman cyclist and left her for dead after knocking her down with his car stood trial yesterday for murder.
Xi'an Intermediate People's Court heard that Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music in the northwest city of Xi'an, stabbed Zhang Miao eight times after he saw the 26-year-old trying to memorize the plate number of his Chevrolet Cruze after last October's accident.
In court, Yao knelt before Zhang's husband and father after he listened to the indictment and had to be pulled to his feet.
"Do you think farmers are difficult to deal with? You hit her because she is a farmer? I don't need a penny from you, but I have a two-year-old son to raise," Zhang's husband Wang Hui told Yao before bursting into tears.
The victim's family has demanded the death penalty and is asking for 536,000 yuan (US$81,738) compensation, Xinhua news agency reported.
Yao was changing a CD while he was driving and accidentally hit Zhang, the court heard. When he saw Zhang trying to note his plate number he stabbed her with a knife.
Yao then drove off, leaving Zhang at the scene. She died from loss of blood.
Half an hour later, Yao hit another two pedestrians but he was blocked by a crowd when he tried to escape and police were called. At the police station he said nothing about the stabbing. It was not until the second day that he mentioned it to police.
Yao is said to have admitted killing the woman because he feared the "peasant woman would be hard to deal with."
On the night of her death, Zhang was returning home from her temporary job as a canteen assistant at Northwest University's Chang'an branch.
Police said she had suffered only slight injuries from the accident, including a fracture to her left leg.
During the trial, Yao's lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying Yao had "surrendered himself to police and depression was to blame, to some extent, for the killing."
But the plea was dismissed by prosecutors, who said Yao did not deserve leniency as he had fled the scene and failed to immediately confess to the murder.
More than 400 people, including students and some 30 relatives of the victim attended the public trial which lasted more than three hours. The verdict will be announced at a later date.
"All I want is the death penalty for Yao to comfort my daughter's spirit," Zhang's father told Xi'an Evening News the day before the trial.
The case aroused widespread public fury and suspicion over whether Yao's parents might use their connections to bribe authorities into letting him off by charging him with a less serious offence.
Xi'an Intermediate People's Court heard that Yao Jiaxin, a 21-year-old student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music in the northwest city of Xi'an, stabbed Zhang Miao eight times after he saw the 26-year-old trying to memorize the plate number of his Chevrolet Cruze after last October's accident.
In court, Yao knelt before Zhang's husband and father after he listened to the indictment and had to be pulled to his feet.
"Do you think farmers are difficult to deal with? You hit her because she is a farmer? I don't need a penny from you, but I have a two-year-old son to raise," Zhang's husband Wang Hui told Yao before bursting into tears.
The victim's family has demanded the death penalty and is asking for 536,000 yuan (US$81,738) compensation, Xinhua news agency reported.
Yao was changing a CD while he was driving and accidentally hit Zhang, the court heard. When he saw Zhang trying to note his plate number he stabbed her with a knife.
Yao then drove off, leaving Zhang at the scene. She died from loss of blood.
Half an hour later, Yao hit another two pedestrians but he was blocked by a crowd when he tried to escape and police were called. At the police station he said nothing about the stabbing. It was not until the second day that he mentioned it to police.
Yao is said to have admitted killing the woman because he feared the "peasant woman would be hard to deal with."
On the night of her death, Zhang was returning home from her temporary job as a canteen assistant at Northwest University's Chang'an branch.
Police said she had suffered only slight injuries from the accident, including a fracture to her left leg.
During the trial, Yao's lawyer pleaded for leniency, saying Yao had "surrendered himself to police and depression was to blame, to some extent, for the killing."
But the plea was dismissed by prosecutors, who said Yao did not deserve leniency as he had fled the scene and failed to immediately confess to the murder.
More than 400 people, including students and some 30 relatives of the victim attended the public trial which lasted more than three hours. The verdict will be announced at a later date.
"All I want is the death penalty for Yao to comfort my daughter's spirit," Zhang's father told Xi'an Evening News the day before the trial.
The case aroused widespread public fury and suspicion over whether Yao's parents might use their connections to bribe authorities into letting him off by charging him with a less serious offence.
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