Ingham County assistant prosecutor Kimberly Hesse holds up a plastic water pitcher while cross-examining MSU alumnus Meng Long Li Jan. 30 at 30th Circuit Court in the Ingham County Courthouse, 315 S. Jefferson St, Mason, Michigan. The water pitcher is a major piece of evidence involved in crimes that were committed Jan. 31, 2014, at Limit Pool & Karaoke Club, 2800 E. Grand River Ave. and had been used to repeatedly beat the student who was attacked that evening. Allyson Telgenhof/The State News.
UPDATE: The jury has found MSU alumnus Meng Long Li guilty of assault.
As closing arguments were made in the retrial against MSU alumnus Meng Long Li, the prosecution projected a very clear message they hoped the jurors would consider when making their decision — credibility.
Meng Long Li was accused of assaulting an MSU student Yan Li Jan. 31, 2014 at the Limit Pool and Karaoke Club in Meridian Township. Meng Long Li allegedly beat Yan Li with a water pitcher, breaking the handle off of the pitcher and giving Yan Li a laceration on the back of his head that required 10 staples to close.
Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney Kimberly Hesse made a point during her closing argument to continually tell the jury to use their "common sense" in order to see what she believes is false information that was given during the defendant's witness testimony, calling the witnesses' stories and accounts of what happened "laughable" at times.
Hesse went through each Chinese student that the defense attorney Chris Bergstrom had called as a witness and one-by-one made cases against the credibility of all of them. Mainly regarding their relationship to Meng Long Li, and/or the alleged Chinese student gang Chengguan, that could give them a motive to alter or give false accounts of what happened.
Hesse also requested that a charge of aiding and abetting be added to the list of charges against Meng Long Li. She cited him testifying that MSU student Zhijie Bao was the one that had committed the assault. The problem being that Meng Long Li also admitted to driving Bao home after the incident had taken place.
But Bergstrom countered, saying that driving Bao did not happen in the karaoke room in which the the assault occurred and was thus not applicable to this case.
The judge, however, agreed with the prosecution, saying that if Meng Long Li knew that Zhijie Bao was the one responsible for the assault and drove him home, a charge of aiding and abetting would be applicable for this case.
The final charges against Meng Long Li included intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery and aiding and abetting the actual perpetrator. If found guilty, under Michigan law Meng Long Li could face up to 10 years in prison.
The jury is currently in deliberations and Hesse said a decision could be handed down as soon as this afternoon.
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