Suspect Faces Trial In Double Murder Magistrate Rules That It’s Doubtful Two Were Killed In Heat Of Passion

It is doubtful Ning Li and Xiahiou Ge were killed in the heat of passion, a Latah County magistrate ruled in ordering Wenkai Li bound over for trial on two counts of firstdegree murder.

Magistrate William Hamlett’s decision Monday at the end of a week-long preliminary hearing means Li, a 25-year-old University of Idaho graduate student, will be arraigned next Monday in 2nd District Court.

Public Defender Michael Henegen suggested in his closing statement that the couple was killed May 29 during a spontaneous fight in their Moscow apartment.

If the killings had been deliberate, there would have been fewer stab wounds, he said.

Henegen asked Hamlett to dismiss the two counts against Li or reduce them to manslaughter.

But the magistrate said the number of knife wounds - Ning Li was stabbed 25 to 28 times and his wife 10 times - and the location of the injuries showed a certain intent to kill.

Many of the wounds were in the victims’ necks, and “that’s a hard place to hit, especially during a fight,” Hamlett said.

Autopsies revealed both victims died when their spinal cords were severed.

Hamlett also said evidence that Wenkai Li tried to cash a $6,500 check on Ning Li’s bank account shortly after the slayings, using the victim’s drivers license as identification, indicated the motive for the slayings was money.

According to court records, Wenkai Li’s girlfriend - who left Moscow for Maryland in May - told investigators Li told her he killed the couple because Ning Li had made disparaging remarks connected to rumors about her.

But during her testimony at Li’s hearing last week, Xiahuo Pan denied that Li talked to her about the murders or even brought up the victims’ names during their telephone conversations.

Li was arrested June 5 in Laramie, Wyo., shortly before he was to board a bus for Salt Lake City. He allegedly had just sold Ning Li’s car for scrap.

The bodies of Ning Li and Xiahiou Ge were found not far from Laramie, near where Wenkai Li had car trouble. They were wrapped in sleeping bags similar to ones purchased at a Moscow store with Wenkai Li’s credit card.

In her closing statement, Latah County Deputy Prosecutor Robin Eckmann pointed to evidence that the killer attempted to cover up the crime by cleaning up the apartment where the slayings occurred.

The killer, however, left behind traces of blood on the walls and floor, along with gouges on the walls where it appeared blood was scraped off, Eckmann said. And Wenkai Li, she said, was in possession of some of the slain couple’s possessions, including their computer, television and VCR.