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Tianle LI
A.K.A.: "Heidi"
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics:
Poisoner -
Prosecutors say Li killed Wang to avoid finalizing their divorce
N.J. woman sentenced to life in prison for
fatally poisoning husband with thallium
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
September 30, 2013
NEW BRUNSWICK — A former chemist at Bristol-Myers
Squibb was sentenced today to life in prison for murdering her husband
by feeding him thallium, a tasteless, odorless and highly lethal
chemical, after he sought a divorce.
Judge Michael Toto ordered Tianle Li of Monroe to
spend life in state prison. Under the terms of the no early release
act, Li, who is 44, must serve 85 percent of her sentence, or at least
62 years, six months and 19 days in prison.
A Middlesex County jury convicted Li in July of
fatally poisoning her husband with thallium on multiple occasions.
"Ms. Li sat at her husband's bedside and watched
his condition deteriorate knowing there was an antidote for the
poison. This was a planned, calculated act performed in a depraved
manner," the judge said.
Li cried as she thanked her mother who came from
China to take care of the couple's now 4-year-old son and she insisted
"I didn't murder Xiaoye Wang and I will appeal."
She said she believed "we have a solid case" to
appeal.
Middlesex County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor
Christie L. Bevacqua said the woman devised a plan to maximize her
husband's suffering.
"Rather than allow her husband to divorce her,
Tianle Li chose murder," the prosecutor said. "She chose death and she
didn't choose a simple, fast death. She chose one that put him through
a lot of pain. While Li was outwardly at his bedside she was keeping a
journal of his symptoms. She calculated everything — how to kill him
and how to get away with his murder."
Bevacqua read a statement from Wang's father, who
lives in China, about the impact his son's death has had on him and
his family.
"I had to bury our son," Ming Wang said. "I'll
never be able to see Xiaoye's bring smile. We will only live the rest
of our lives mourning our loss."
Defense attorney Steve Altman told the judge he
tries to "humanize" his client at sentencing and tried to "explain the
circumstances why the person I represent is here in the courtroom."
Talking to the judge he said, "During the trial you
learned the history of her life. Immigrants always need to assimilate.
You saw the conflicts that exist coming from an Eastern culture and
trying to get comfortable with Western culture. I think that's what
brought us here today."
He said Li has been westernized but the fighting
began when Wang's family came from China in 2009 after the birth of
their son to help her with the child.
"Li was Westernized but her in-laws came from the
Eastern culture and couldn't accept the Western culture. Poor Mr. Wang
was caught in the middle of the situation. There was a mix of issues
and facts and cultures that gradually deteriorated and brings us
here."
Wang filed for divorce in 2010 and moved out of the
house but his wife asked him to move back to help take care of their
son.
Authorities charged that Li began poisoning her
husband as early as November 2010, and continued to do so even as he
lay in a hospital bed.
Wang checked himself into University Medical Center
in Princeton, complaining of abdominal pain, on Jan. 14, 2011, the day
the couple was supposed to finalize their divorce in a New Brunswick
courtroom. He remained hospitalized until his death on Jan. 26, 2011,
the day after doctors received test results showing he had lethal
amounts of thallium, a heavy metal, in his system.
Wang’s parents have filed a lawsuit against the
hospital and his widow’s former employer on behalf of their grandson.
They insist the hospital failed to take Wang seriously when he
suggested his wife had poisoned him, and that Squibb should not have
granted Li access to thallium after a fellow employee had obtained a
restraining order against her.
Jury convicts Monroe woman of poisoning her
husband
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
July 09, 2013
NEW BRUNSWICK — Just as she had throughout her
murder trial, Tianle Li sat stoically as the guilty verdict was read.
A Middlesex County jury today convicted the
44-year-old former chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb of fatally
poisoning her husband in January 2011 with thallium, a tasteless,
odorless and highly lethal drug, after he had sought a divorce.
Li’s mother, who came to the United States from
China to care for the couple’s 4-year-old son, sat behind her daughter
in the courtroom. But she, too, betrayed no emotion, and mother and
daughter did not exchange even a glance after the foreman delivered
guilty verdicts on charges of murder and hindering her own
prosecution.
Li, a Chinese citizen, faces life in prison.
Superior Court Judge Michael Toto, who presided over the six-week
trial in New Brunswick, set a sentencing date of Sept. 30.
The lack of emotion at the culmination of a
six-month investigation and trial was in sharp contrast to the stormy
relationship Li had with her husband and victim, Xiaoye Wang, 39.
Testimony revealed that police had been called to the couple’s
spacious Monroe home 16 times to intervene in domestic disputes, and
Wang once told officers that his wife had poisoned him.
Outside the courtroom later, Li’s mother, who
identified herself only as "Mrs. Li," fought back tears when asked,
through an interpreter, for her reaction to the verdict.
"I know my daughter was innocent. Even when I was
in Peking, I knew," she said, using the historical name of the Chinese
capital, Beijing. "Her life is ruined now."
Li did not testify in her own defense. But her
attorney, Steven Altman, told the jury there was no evidence that she
poisoned her husband or ever gave him thallium.
Christie Bevacqua, the Middlesex County deputy
first assistant prosecutor who tried the case, said of the verdict,
"We believe justice was served."
Authorities charged that Li began poisoning her
husband as early as November 2010, and continued to do so even as he
lay in a hospital bed.
Wang checked himself into University Medical Center
in Princeton, complaining of abdominal pain, on Jan. 14, 2011, the day
the couple was supposed to finalize their divorce in a New Brunswick
courtroom. He remained hospitalized until his death on Jan. 26, 2011,
the day after doctors received test results showing he had lethal
amounts of thallium, a heavy metal, in his system.
Wang’s parents have filed a lawsuit against the
hospital and his widow’s former employer on behalf of their grandson.
They insist the hospital failed to take Wang seriously when he
suggested his wife had poisoned him, and that Squibb should not have
granted Li access to thallium after a fellow employee had obtained a
restraining order against her.
Leading up to today’s verdict, the jury spent more
than two days listening to a replay of several witnesses’ testimony
during the trial, which began in late May. Jurors were forced to begin
deliberations all over again after one of them was excused for
personal reasons and replaced by an alternate. In total, they took a
little over three hours to convict Li.
An FBI toxicologist testified that thallium is
often called "the perfect poison" because it is undetectable by most
laboratories testing for heavy metals. The toxicologist, Cynthia
Morris-Kukoski, also testified that the drug was difficult to obtain
because it is banned from commercial use and not available to the
public.
Other testimony revealed that Li had obtained four
bottles of thallium in November 2010 at work, before returning three
of them later that month and the following December.
Li tried unsuccessfully to go back to China, with
her son and an aunt, just before her husband’s death, but was unable
to pay for the tickets.
She was charged with obstruction on Jan. 28, two
days after Wang died, after she told police that she had never worked
with thallium, only to be contradicted by records investigators
obtained from Squibb. She was charged with murder several days later.
Fate of Monroe woman charged with poisoning her
husband rests with jury
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
July 02, 2013
NEW BRUNSWICK — The case of a Monroe Township woman
charged with murder in the poisoning death of her husband more than
two years ago has gone to the jury.
Tianle Li, 44, a research chemist at Bristol-Myers
Squibb until her arrest two years ago, is charged with using thallium
to murder Xiaoye Wang, 39. She is also accused of hindering her own
apprehension by telling police she never had thallium or worked with
the poisonous heavy metal. Prosecutors say Li killed Wang to avoid
finalizing their divorce.
Jurors in New Brunswick deliberated for less than
two hours today before going home. They will resume deliberations
Wednesday morning.
“There is no proof that Tianle Li gave her husband
thallium,” Li's attorney, Steven Altman, said in his closing argument.
“There is no proof Tianle Li transported thallium in her car or into
her home to give it to her husband. Tianle Li is not guilty.”
But Deputy First Assistant Middlesex County
Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua called Li a “murderer,” and said “all of
the evidence points at Tianle Li. There is no other person.”
Bevacqua laid out the evidence she presented during
the trial, including Li’s ordering four bottles of thallium at work in
November 2010, her efforts to purchase one-way tickets to China for
her aunt, son and herself in the days before Wang died, and her
visiting websites for criminal attorneys and the state judiciary
system the day before his death.
“Her actions displayed a consciousness of guilty,”
Bevacqua said, adding later that, “It was all about control. She
wanted to control Xiaoye Wang. She is unhappy about getting divorced.
She would lose status.”
The prosecutor said Li “purposely chose a rare
poison,” for which doctors would not immediately test when Wang was
admitted to the hospital on Jan. 14, 2011, the day the couple were
supposed to finalize their divorce.
Thallium is tasteless, odorless and deadly in small
amounts—“the perfect poison,” Bevacqua said.
“It was cold, it was cold-hearted and it was
calculated,” Bevacqua said, noting that with Wang's death, Li “would
have the house, hers and his finances and her son.”
But, Altman told the jury Li had no reason to kill
her husband.
He said the custody of their son, financial
arrangements and property settlement had been finished and they were
going to sell the house, of which she was to make $250,000.
“The proof and evidence do not support divorce as a
motive,” Altman said.
He told the jury Li “never made an attempt to leave
the country” during Wang’s hospital stay, but Bevacqua displayed
records that indicate she sought and obtained a passport and Chinese
visa for her son, and made the reservations for the one-way trip to
China.
“There was no accident here. She thought she was
going to get away with murder,” the prosecutor said. “Unfortunately,
for Xiaoye Wang, she did a good job.”
Wang died Jan. 26, 2011 and Li was arrested two
days later.
FBI expert: Monroe man given fatal thallium dose
before he was hospitalized
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
June 26, 2013
A Monroe man received a fatal dose of thallium only
days before he was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pains, an
FBI toxicologist told a jury today.
Cynthia Morris-Kukoski, testifying at the trial of
Tianle Li, who is charged in the murder of her husband, Xiaoye Wang,
39, said she reviewed all of Wang’s medical records from his hospital
stay, along with the Middlesex County Medical Examiner’s report and
lab test results before concluding that Wang was given the poison the
week of Jan. 9, 2011.
The state has argued that Li poisoned her husband
after the estranged couple had a mediation session, in which they
fought over distribution of their financial assets— the last step
before their divorce— a divorce Li did not want—became final.
Li and Wang were scheduled to go to court to
finalize the divorce on Jan. 14, 2011, but instead, Wang admitted
himself to University Medical Center in Princeton with abdominal
pains. He died Jan. 26, 2011, a day after tests for thallium in his
system came back positive.
Li, 44, was a research chemist at Bristol Myers
Squibb and obtained the thallium through work, according to testimony
in the trial, now in its fifth week in Superior Court in New
Brunswick.
Thallium is a highly toxic heavy metal that is
tasteless, odorless and deadly in small amounts, according to Morris-Kukoski.
“It is referred to as the perfect poison,” she
said. “It is odorless, colorless, tasteless and undetected by most
labs. Hospitals need to send to an outside lab and specifically ask
for a thallium test.”
Middlesex County Deputy First Assistant Prosecutor
Christie Bevacqua asked Morris-Kukoski how much thallium it took to
kill a person and asked her to compare it to a packet of “Sweet’N
Low,” which she handed her.
“A lethal does is an average adult is about one
gram,” Morris-Kukoski said. “It is less than this packet.”
The toxicologist said she does not believe Wang was
given any of the poison while he lay in his hospital bed, only before
he entered the hospital.
Christine Stefanelli, a former cellmate of Li’s at
the Middlesex County jail, where Li has been held since her February
2011 arrest, testified last week that Li told her she gave her husband
thallium three times, including one dose through his IV tubes in the
hospital.
Li is charged with murder and hindering her own
apprehension for telling authorities at first that she never ordered
or used thallium at work. Investigators learned subsequently that she
ordered four bottles of thallium from Bristol Myers Squib in the two
months before her husband’s hospitalization.
The trial will resume before Superior Court Judge
Michael Toto in the morning.
Level of poison in Monroe man's system was "off
the charts," lab tech testifies
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
June 5, 2013
A laboratory technician for the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota testified today that a Monroe Township man had so much
thallium in his system in January 2011 that “it was off the charts.”
Curtis Rykal was testifying on the first day of the
murder trial of Tianle Li, who is charged with using thalium to poison
her husband, Xiaoye “Alex” Wang, 39, who died Jan. 26, 2011 after 12
days in University Medical Center in Princeton. The case is being
heard in Superior Court.
Rykal, who specializes in testing for heavy metals,
said he ran a test on Wang’s urine for thallium on Jan. 24, 2011.
“The results were very positive,” he said during
testimony in Superior Court in New Brunswick. “They were higher than
our highest reportable amount. It was off the charts, I have never
seen results that high.”
Thallium is a highly toxic heavy metal that is
tasteless and odorless and is deadly in small amounts, according to
officials.
Li, 44, was a research chemist at Bristol Myers
Squib and obtained the thallium through work, authorities said.
Before Rykal testified, Middlesex County Deputy
First Assistant Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua told the jury Li “is a
murderer.”
“She packs a potent punch,” Bevacqua said. “Her
weapon is her brain. She is a chemist with easy access to deadly
weapons — many deadly weapons. Her weapon of choice was thallium, that
perfect poison. It’s odorless, colorless and tasteless. It will kill
in small amounts and is very hard to detect.”
The prosecutor said Li returned four used bottles
of thallium to Bristol Myers Squib, “missing enough of the poison to
kill multiple people.”
She said Li “also had an escape plan.”
Bevacqua said she had obtained a passport for her
son and visas to China, along with one-way tickets to China booked for
Jan. 25, 2011 for her aunt, her son and herself, but she did not make
the flight.
Steven Altman, Li’s defense attorney, countered by
commending Bevacqua on what he called “a wonderful speech, very
theatrical,” but said, “that’s not why we’re here.”
He said it is for the jurors to decide if Li is a
murderer, not the lawyers.
“There is no proof that (Tianle Li) poisoned her
husband,” Altman said, noting she spent every day at her husband’s
bedside, feeding him and praying for his recovery. “The key question
here is, are (Tianle Li’s) conduct consistent with those of someone
that wanted her husband dead?”
Wang left the Monroe Township home in the spring of
2010 and filed for divorce from Li in July 2010.
Michael Green, Wang’s divorce attorney, testified
the couple eventually reached agreements on custody of their
2-year-old son and, on Jan. 10, 2011, agreed on how to split their
finances and property, but not until they had a “very contentious,”
and “loud” argument at the offices of the mediator trying to help them
settle the economic issues.
With the agreements in place, the estranged couple
had a court date on Jan. 14, 2011, to finalize the divorce, but never
made it.
Green said Wang called him the morning of Jan. 14,
2011 to tell him his wife’s aunt became ill and Li was taking her to
the hospital so they couldn’t go to court. By that evening, Wang
joined the aunt at the Princeton hospital, where he was admitted with
stomach pains and flu-like symptoms. He died Jan. 26, 2011.
Monroe Twp. woman pleads not guilty to fatally
poisoning husband with thallium
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
May 17, 2013
A Monroe Township woman pleaded not guilty this
morning at her arraignment on charges she murdered her estranged
husband by poisoning him with thallium over a two month period ending
with his death on Jan. 26.
Tianle Li, 40, told Superior Court Judge Michael
Toto that she understood the charges contained in an indictment handed
up against her — that she murdered Xiaoye (Alex) Wang, 39, and then
hindered her own apprehension by telling police she had "nothing to do
with thallium."
The grand jury charged in the indictment that Li
began feeding the thallium, which is highly toxic, but odorless and
tasteless, to Wang on Nov. 16, 2010, and continued until he died Jan.
26, 2011, at University Medical Center in Princeton.
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas
Sewitch has said Liu gave thallium to Wang in the hospital, where he
admitted himself on Jan. 14, complaining of virus-like symptoms. It
was not confirmed until Jan. 25, 2011 that he suffered from thallium
poisoning.
Authorities said Li, a chemist at Bristol-Myers
Squibb, got the poison from work.
The couple was living in the same house with their
2-year-old son, but were in the final stages of divorce.
The prosecutor said last month that Li applied for
a rush visa for her son to take him to China, where she and her
husband were born, and two days before Wang died she tried to buy
plane tickets to China.
Li is in the Middlesex County jail on $4.15 million
bail.
Prosecutor says Monroe woman continued to poison
estranged husband at Princeton hospital
By Sue Epstein and Amy Ellis Nutt - The Star-Ledger
March 14, 2011
While Xiaoye Wang lay dying in a Princeton hospital
in January, his estranged wife continued to feed him poison, a
prosecutor said today.
And when her husband fell into a coma, Tianle Li,
40, tried to buy two one-way tickets — for herself and her 2-year-old
son — back to her native China. Li, a scientist at Bristol-Myers
Squibb, was charged last month with murdering Wang in the midst of
divorce proceedings.
"She poisoned her husband to death," said Middlesex
County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch at a hearing in New
Brunswick.
Sewitch said Li obtained thallium, a highly toxic
heavy metal that is tasteless and odorless, from the supply room at
Bristol-Myers Squibb, although the research she was doing did not
require it.
"She ordered (four) bottles of thallium," he said.
"When she returned the bottles, over 90 percent of the thallium was
gone."
Today’s hearing was scheduled after Li’s attorney,
Steven Altman, filed motions to reduce her bail so his client could
return to her home in Monroe and regain custody of her son, now in a
foster home under the control of the state’s Division of Youth and
Families.
In part, the hearing was a way for Altman to force
the prosecutor to reveal evidence why Li’s bail should remain so high.
Superior Court Judge Michael Toto denied Altman’s
motion, keeping bail at $4 million for the charge of murder and
another $150,000 on a charge of hindering her own apprehension. A
probable cause hearing was scheduled for April 26.
Li sat quietly, her hands cuffed in front of her,
during the hearing, an expression of fear and pain on her face. Her
mother, Jian Zhang, was in the courtroom, having traveled from her
home in Beijing, China. She was accompanied by an attorney who spoke
Chinese and translated for her and declined to comment after the
proceedings.
Li began feeding her husband thallium sometime in
December or January, according to Sewitch, which was before Wang, a
computer engineer, admitted himself into University Medical Center in
Princeton on Jan. 14, complaining of virus-like symptoms.
The prosecutor did not detail exactly how Li
poisoned Wang, and said that when she was questioned by investigators,
"she denied anything to do with thallium."
But during today’s hearing Sewitch told Toto that
Li applied for a rush visa for her son in order to take him to China,
and that two days before her husband died she tried to purchase
airplane tickets.
On Jan. 28, just 48 hours after Wang’s death,
authorities charged Li with hindering her own apprehension and jailed
her. Two weeks later, she was charged with murder.
Li and Wang, who was 39 at the time of his death
and also a native of China, were married in 2001 and were in the final
stages of divorce, with the final hearing to dissolve their marriage
scheduled for Jan. 14, but the hearing was postponed.
That day, Wang, a computer engineer in New York,
took himself to the hospital. His condition deteriorated until he died
Jan. 26, the day after doctors determined he was suffering from
thallium poisoning.
The heavy metal can be bought over the internet, in
powder or liquid form. Before it was banned for household use in this
country almost 30 years ago, it was popular as a rodenticide and
insecticide and is still used in the pharmaceutical industry, in glass
and electronics manufacturing and medicinally in stress tests to help
diagnose coronary artery disease.
Symptoms of thallium poisoning usually begin with
gastrointestinal distress, followed by increasing nerve pain, hair
loss, blindness and coma. There is only one antidote, Prussian blue,
which is not readily available in the United States. Despite heroic
efforts by the New Jersey Poison Control Center, state’s department of
health and senior services, a sufficient dose of Prussian blue did not
arrive until Wang was near death, and at that point, said doctors,
nothing could more could be done to save him.
Before Monroe man's fatal poisoning, couple had
history of domestic disputes
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
February 10, 2011
Xiaoye Wang’s marriage to Tianle Li saw bitter
arguments that frequently brought police to the couple’s home in
Monroe Township.
"There were a fair number of calls (to police),"
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said today.
"More than five."
Things got so bad that Wang, 39, filed for divorce
in July, citing irreconcilable differences. He also sought joint
custody of the couple’s 2-year-old son, Isaac.
Li, 40, counter-sued a month later, citing the same
reason and adding there was "no hope for reconciliation."
The couple’s 10-year marriage appeared to be over.
But on Jan. 14, the day a hearing would be held to
finalize the divorce, Wang admitted himself to the University Medical
Center in Princeton with "virus-like" symptoms. He died 12 days later
from thallium poisoning, which authorities allege was administered by
his wife.
Li remained at the Middlesex County jail in North
Brunswick today in lieu of $4.15 million bail, charged with murder and
hindering her own apprehension. Her attorney, Steven Altman, said his
client denies having anything to do with her husband’s death.
Records indicate Wang moved out of the couple’s
home on Stanley Drive home in Monroe sometime in June and into a
Jersey City apartment.
Preceding the legal steps to end their marriage
were calls to police, starting in April 2009 — about seven months
after they had moved to Monroe.
Sewitch said none of the calls resulted in charges
because there was never any sign of violence or injury to either Li or
Wang. While Sewitch would not comment on the origin of the couple’s
disputes, neighbors said they often heard them arguing and witnessed
frequent visits by police officers.
Wang worked as a computer software engineer in New
York City, while Li is a research chemist at the Lawrenceville offices
of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceutical giant.
After Wang admitted himself into the hospital, his
condition progressively deteriorated until he died Jan. 26, the day
after doctors finally determined he was suffering from thallium
poisoning. After much searching, an antidote was found but by the time
it arrived at the hospital, Wang was near death and nothing could be
done to save him.
The divorce hearing, which was postponed due to his
illness, had been rescheduled for today.
Thallium is a highly toxic heavy metal that is
tasteless and odorless. It was once used in rat poison and
insecticides, but was banned for that use in the United States and
other counties in the 1980s. It is still used in glass and electronics
manufacturing and medicinally in stress tests to help diagnose
coronary artery disease.
Sewitch has not said how the thallium was
administered, nor whether it was given in several small doses over
time or in one dose. All he would confirm was that it was ingested in
December or January. He also would not comment on where Li allegedly
obtained the thallium, though he did say it would have been available
to her at Bristol-Myers, where she’s worked since 2001.
Monroe woman is charged with fatally poisoning
husband
By Sue Epstein - The Star-Ledger
February 8, 2011
When Xiaoye Wang checked into a Princeton hospital
last month, his case appeared to be routine. The computer engineer
from Monroe Township complained only of flu-like symptoms, authorities
say.
But for nearly two weeks, Wang struggled to get
better. On Jan. 25, after a series of tests, doctors discovered the
reason: Wang had been poisoned with thallium, a highly toxic metal.
He died in his hospital bed the following day. And
today, following an investigation that brought in the FBI and the
State Police, authorities charged Wang’s wife, Tianle Li, with his
murder.
A research chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb since
2001, Li obtained an undisclosed amount of the radioactive substance,
authorities say, and administered a dose to Wang in December or
January.
Natives of China, Wang and Li moved to a new home
on Stanley Drive in 2008 and had a son. But a year later, the marriage
had soured, police say.
"The investigation determined that Li and Wang, who
were in the process of getting a divorce, had been involved in a
series of domestic disturbances since April 2009," Bruce Kaplan, the
Middlesex County prosecutor, said in a press release.
Li’s attorney, Steve Altman, said his client is
innocent.
"The divorce proceeding had been resolved in
principle by a property settlement agreement," Altman said. "Mr. Wang
was paying for support of his son. There was no motive for my client
to kill her husband."
He said Li, who goes by the name Heidi, has no
relatives in the United States. Their child, now 2, is in foster care,
Altman said.
Li, 40, was first charged with hindering her own
apprehension for giving false statements on Jan. 28, two days after
her husband died in University Medical Center in Princeton, Kaplan
said. The murder charge was lodged after an autopsy confirmed Wang was
poisoned with thallium.
After searching the couple’s home in the southern
end of Middlesex County, investigators concluded no one else had been
exposed to the metal. Thallium, a radioactive substance, is used
mostly in the electronics industry. It is also deployed in stress
tests to diagnose heart disease.
For poisoning purposes, it would be in a powdery or
crystallized state. The poison works by knocking out the body’s supply
of potassium and attacking the nervous system, the stomach and the
kidneys. Its effects can take weeks to kick in.
Li is being held in the Middlesex County Jail. Her
bail was set at $150,000 on the hindering charge, but raised another
$4 million after she was charged with murder.
Fred Egenolf, a spokesman for Bristol Myers Squibb,
said the company would have no comment about Li.
Staff writer Rohan Mascarenhas and the Associated
Press contributed to this report.
