After the jury failed to reach a verdict in his original trial, Meng Long Li declined a plea deal Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Court Building at the Ingham County Courthouse.
Li, an MSU alumnus, was allegedly involved in the group assault of former MSU student Yan Li at a Meridian Township karaoke club on the Chinese New Year, Jan. 31, 2014. His case is the last of the alleged defendants for this assault.
During Li’s second trial, Ingham County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kimberly Hesse said the people are suggesting a sentence within a year of one-year jail time, no less than six months.
Li was previously presented with a plea deal to reduce his charge to a one-year misdemeanor of aggravated assault with maximum punishment being one-year sentence, compared to the 10-year felony he was originally facing.
At the start of the retrial, judge Clinton Canady III called the photos of the assault victim “pretty severe beating” and “more than a bar fight.” He considered this far past self defense.
Hesse and Canady III negotiated the terms of the plea and agreed that if Li were to begin sentencing today, he would stay in jail until Aug. 1, serving a 90-day sentencing.
Li has been accepted and plans to begin graduate school at Columbia University in New York this August, although he was not able to offer proof in court. Because it would be difficult to monitor his probation in New York, Canady was against this.
Both Hesse and Li’s attorney Chris Bergstrom were unable to comment because the case is pending. Since the plea deal was revoked, the retrial will move forward on May 26 at 8:30 a.m.
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