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David White / Stuff
Manchao Li has denied murdering his ex-wife Zhimin Yang.
A woman fatally stabbed by her ex-husband while waiting for a bus feared for her life in the months leading up to the attack, says the Crown.
Manchao Li, 65, has denied murdering Zhimin Yang in Massey, west Auckland, in July last year.
He has also denied having violated a protection order that prevented him from contacting his ex-wife.
On Tuesday, Crown Prosecutor Nicky Webby opened the case to the jury in Auckland High Court, saying the attack on Yang was deliberate and calculated.
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* Stabbing in West Auckland: Manchao Li loses name suppression in alleged murder case
Lawrence Smith / Stuff
A police forensic unit examined the scene on Westgate Drive in July of last year.
On the morning of July 29, 2019, shortly after 8 a.m., Yang left his Massey home to catch the bus to work “for the last time in his life,” the court heard.
“She didn’t realize it at the time and it wasn’t until it was too late that she was followed by the man who would kill her.”
Almost 30 minutes later, Yang was killed in broad daylight by Li while waiting for the bus to arrive at Westgate Dr.
A construction worker saw her being knocked to the ground from behind, Webby said.
“The attacker then dragged her into a grassy area throwing her across the ground.”
The woman, who was screaming and crying for help, was subjected to a dozen blows to the face before going limp.
Yang was stabbed 12 times with a hunting knife that Li had bought the day before.
“He inflicted wounds with that knife that cut a main artery in his neck, a main vein in his body, which penetrated his heart and his lungs and stomach,” Webby said.
Webby said it was Li’s “deliberate and conscious” actions that caused Yang’s death.
David White / Stuff
Crown prosecutor Nick Webby opened the case to the jury on Tuesday.
THE CATALYST
The couple met in China and married in 1997 before moving to New Zealand in 2001.
Four years later they separated in 2005 and divorced in 2009.
“He was a man for a good reason that scared him. I was afraid he would kill her if he knew where she lived. “
In 2005, after Yang and her son moved out of a Blockhouse Bay property, Li went to her Avondale home and threatened to kill her, Webby said.
Later, Yang and her son went and stayed in a safe house before obtaining a protection order against her ex-husband.
Later, in 2005, the former couple’s home was sold and Li went on to purchase property in Christchurch in the name of his first wife.
There was a dispute over the Christchurch property and Yang successfully obtained an action after a High Court ruling.
This was the catalyst or trigger for “exact revenge,” Webby said.
“He was a man who had become obsessed with exacting revenge or justice against her after a relationship property dispute,” Webby said.
After being diagnosed with depression and anxiety in 2018, Li told social workers that he wanted to harm his ex-wife by cutting her arms and legs with a knife, Webby said.
She even tried to have Immigration New Zealand deport her from the country.
LAWRENCE SMITH / THINGS
Forensic personnel review the scene of the incident in West Auckland. (First published July 2019)
In April 2019, Yang saw her ex-husband loitering near her home and reported it to the police.
“I think if Manchao knew where I lived, he would kill me,” Yang told police.
In the months before Yang’s death, tenants in her son’s home had their car tires cut off, their car was tagged in red paint, and a dead rat and pigeon were found in the mailbox.
The trial lasts three weeks before a jury chaired by Judge Pheroze Jagose.
