According to witness testimony heard Friday, three men assaulted MSU student Yan Li with their fists and a plastic water pitcher for three to five minutes in a private room at a karaoke club on Jan. 31, 2014, shortly after a confrontation with one of the two defendants.
Music performance junior Yanbing Lu, who was in the room at the time of the assault, testified that the defendant who had confronted Yan Li moments before was not one of the men. Rather, Lu said defendant Meng Long Li, an MSU alumnus, tried to pull the attackers off Yan Li.
The other defendant in the case is MSU mathematics student Shan Gao. The two face a number of assault charges, including assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, according to the Lansing State Journal.
Prosecutors allege that the defendants belong to a Chinese student gang called “Chengguan,” but the defendants and witnesses have refuted these claims, testifying that it’s merely a group of friends.
Meng Long Li
Meng Long Li testified that during 2013 winter break he heard Yan Li was asking around for his phone number, so when he saw Yan Li at the karaoke club the night of the assault he decided to ask him about it. Asking for another’s phone number indicates that person is looking for trouble, Meng Long Li said.
“It’s like a challenge,” he said. “If I refuse to give my phone number I seem like a coward.”
The confrontation between the two was brief, Meng Long Li said. Yan Li said he didn’t ask for his number, and Meng Long Li was satisfied.
But moments later, when one of Meng Long Li’s friends heard of the confrontation, the friend shouted out, “What? He asked for your phone number?” and then several others followed Yan Li back into the private room, pushed him down and began assaulting him, Meng Long Li testified.
According to previous testimony, Yan Li was struck on the head with the plastic water pitcher until it broke, causing a 4-centimeter long, 1-centimeter deep laceration behind his right ear that required three sutures and 10 staples.
That night, Jan. 31, 2014, the date of Chinese New Year, was the second time Meng Long Li and Yan Li had met. In late November 2013, Yan Li and Meng Long Li had scuffled at Hong’s Cafe over a fight between two others.
Meng Long Li testified that he put his arm across Yan Li’s chest to keep him out of the fight and calm him down. The move resulted in harsh words from Yan Li and an attempted punch that missed.
Seeing this, someone from behind Meng Long Li kicked Yan Li in the face, breaking his glasses and ending the scuffle between the two, Meng Long Li said.
Shan Gao
Further testimony heard placed the other defendant, Gao, outside the bar during the assault.
Three witnesses, including Gao, his girlfriend and his friend, testified that he was making amends with his girlfriend in his car in the karaoke bar’s parking lot and that he never entered the building that night. That talk was cut short when Gao’s friend came to the car and alerted the two of the assault inside the bar, prompting them to leave until the police arrived.
Prior witness testimony connected Meng Long Li to the club that night, but none of the witnesses could recall if Gao was present.
Lu, who did not know Gao at the time, could not identify the third attacker, as the room was dark and the third man’s face was obscured.
Gang or group of friends?
Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor Kimberly Hesse pressed the witnesses and defendants about the alleged Chinese student gang Chengguan and what affiliations the defendants have with it.
The name is the same as that of a Chinese police agency who “clean the streets” of illegal vendors and issue parking tickets, Meng Long Li said. While he said the agency’s reputation is not very good, other testimony tiptoed around characterizing the agency as being a peaceful or violent one.
Though Meng Long Li denied affiliation with the alleged gang, he named several people who had a sticker of the agency’s emblem on their cars. Having known some of the members, he characterized the group as friends who “just hang out together, you know, play basketball.”
Gao, one of those who had the emblem on his car, said the sticker was “just for fun” and nothing more. When the prosecutor asked if a certain person was the leader of the alleged gang, Gao said “there’s no leader, only friends.”
Several of those associated with Chengguan, or at least those who were said to have the emblem sticker on their cars, ate dinner the evening of the assault with a group that included Gao and Meng Long Li.
The relations between them range from friends, to friends of friends, to acquaintances. Both Meng Long Li and Gao described themselves as friends but said they only see each other several times a year.
Whether Chengguan reveals a more sinister facet of the international community at MSU, or just a misunderstanding, an exemplification of the cultural barriers that exist between the two communities remains to be seen.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday at Ingham County Circuit Court, with the prosecutor and the defense attorneys set to give their closing arguments. Afterward, the jury will deliberate.
