A Bay Area judge Wednesday sentenced a man who pled no contest in a murder of hire plot in Oakland Chinatown to 15 years to life, reported CBS5.
Prosecutors say Hasheem Bason of Stockton, CA was hired by the victim’s boyfriend to kill her. They say Nelson Chia orchestrated the death of Lili Xu to take control of her assets.
Chia killed himself in jail just one week after being arrested.
According to a statement by District Attorney Pamela Price, Chia prayed on Bason and threatened to disclose dark secrets about his youth unless he assisted in killing Xu.
“The public should know that the person who truly deserves the maximum punishment under the law is Nelson Chia, the mastermind of this horrible crime. Unfortunately, when the true facts were discovered, Chia, who was arrested for the crime, took his own life to avoid facing justice for his role in these acts of evil,” Price said. “Although Hasheem Bason was not the person who made the plan to take the life of Lili Xu, he did, in fact, pull the trigger of the gun that killed her, and for that, he will go to prison for 15 years to life.”
Prosecutors also say Chia also cheated on Xu in the months leading up to her death and that after she was killed, he held a banquet in her honor to raise money for his own foundation and played the grieving lover, KRON4 reported.
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