Killer Of UI Student, Wife Gets 65-Year Term Death Penalty Not An Option For Second-Degree Murder Charge

Wenkai Li was sentenced Tuesday to at least 65 years in prison for the stabbing deaths of a fellow Chinese graduate student and his wife.

The term ordered by 2nd District Judge Ida Leggett is the mandatory minimum that Li will serve for the May 29, 1995, slayings.

The sentence included a 40-year term for the murder of Xia Ge, 25, and a 25-year term for the murder of her husband, Ning Li, a University of Idaho doctoral student. The terms are to be served consecutively.

Wenkai Li, 26, who also was studying at Idaho, faced a maximum sentence of two consecutive life prison terms and a 15-year enhancement for using a deadly weapon.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder on June 27 in an agreement with prosecutors.

Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson, who recommended a fixed life term, said he was satisfied with the sentence ordered by Leggett because Li will not be eligible for parole until he is 91.

The sentence was ordered at the end of a two-day hearing in which Li testified that he cleaned up the crime scene because he feared his life would be over if he were convicted.

He also tearfully testified that he had made a mistake.

Ning Li, no relation to Wenkai Li, was stabbed 28 times and his wife 10. An autopsy showed their spinal columns were severed.

Prosecutors said Ning Li was stabbed first and his wife was slain after she entered a room of their house to find Wenkai Li with the body of her husband. She was slain because she was the only witness, prosecutors said.

Wenkai Li got into a fight with Ning Li over rumors about Wenkai Li’s girlfriend, the killer testified previously.

The victims’ bodies, stuffed in sleeping bags, were found alongside a rural Wyoming road days after the killings in Moscow.

Family members of the victims called for the death penalty, which is not an option in a second-degree murder case.

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