US jurors to begin hearing case in Chinese scholar kidnapping trial“Brendt Christensen is responsible for the death of Yingying Zhang,” defense attorney George Taseff said in court, according to US media. Christensen kidnapped Zhang near the University of Illinois campus in Champaign, a small midwestern city surrounded by farmland. “He claimed they will never find her,” assistant US Attorney Eugene Miller told the jury, according to the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Christensen’s defense attorney painted him as a man struggling with “a perfect storm” of substance abuse, a failing marriage and academic problems. The trial has drawn intense interest within the small college community of Champaign and neighboring Urbana.

Source: The Express Tribune June 13, 2019 06:33 UTC