$2M posted to bail out Chinese student facing vehicular-homicide charge

A Chinese national who faces a vehicular-homicide charge for a Nov. 10 accident that left one woman dead and three injured in Des Moines has been freed on bail after his family posted a $ 2 million cashier's check.

Yichun Xu, 19, allegedly drove his newly purchased Mercedes-Benz at freeway speeds through residential areas of Des Moines and ran through a stop sign, crashing into another car.

The other driver, Brenda Gomez-Zapata, 25, later died from a severe brain injury, and three others in her car were injured. Xu, an international student, faces one count of vehicular homicide, three counts of vehicular assault and two counts of reckless endangerment. His bail was set at $ 2 million cash.

During a bail hearing Friday, Xu's mother produced a cashier's check for the total amount, said Ian Goodhew, deputy chief of staff for the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office. Once the funds were verified by the county jail, he was released at 8 that night.

"Rarely is a bail of that amount posted," Goodhew said.

He fears Xu will flee to China, despite assurances from the man's attorney.

"We asked for $ 2 million because we had flight-risk concerns," Goodhew said Saturday. "We are very much concerned he won't show up for court."

One condition of Xu's release was that he surrender his passport.

But Goodhew said there have been other cases in which Chinese nationals have surrendered their passports yet somehow have returned to China.

With no extradition treaty between the U.S. and China, Goodhew said King County has no recourse if Xu flees to his home country.

Xu couldn't be held in jail because he had no pattern of previous violence or failure to appear, Goodhew added.

Xu's attorney, Scott Leist, couldn't be reached for comment.

Charging papers say that at the time of the accident, in which Xu drove 70 mph on a residential street, he didn't have an international license and hadn't driven in the United States.

Gomez-Zapata was driving four family members to a birthday party.

According to charging papers, Xu had $ 542 in his wallet at the time of his arrest and "requested several times that in lieu of being booked into jail, he requested to bail out right away," charging papers say.

Xu lived with a host family in Olympia and had a student visa while attending South Puget Sound Community College.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold placed on Xu was lifted because he had showed evidence of enrolling in school again, although it's unclear what school.

No trial date has been set.

Christine Willmsen: cwillmsen@seattletimes.com or 206-464-3261. On twitter @christinesea

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.

Read More @ Source



Criminal Stories Here

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Homicide victim found at vacant Everett house

Image
EVERETT -- Police on Wednesday were canvassing the View Ridge-Madison neighborhood in Everett after a man was found dead there the night before. A neighbor spotted the man on the ground outside a vacant house at 22 Madison St. He called 911 about 6:20 p.m. The man had obvious signs of trauma to his torso, police said. He looked to be in his late 20s or early 30s. The Everett Major Crimes Unit is investigating the death as a homicide, Lt. Robert Goetz said. Detectives declined to say more about how they believe the man may have died. There are no identified suspects or motives. Detectives received a search warrant around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday and collected evidence at the scene. They returned Wednesday afternoon to look for clues in the daylight, Goetz said. The victim's identity had not been determined as of late Wednesday afternoon. The body was turned over to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office. Anyone with information is asked to call 425-257-8450. Rikki King: 425-
Keep reading

Manslaughter charges possible in boy's death

Image
Published: Thursday, August 23, 2012, 5:55 p.m. MONROE -- Detectives believe a 7-year-old Monroe boy's parents should face second-degree manslaughter charges in connection with his January overdose death. Monroe police this week wrapped up their probe into the boy's Jan. 30 death and forwarded the case to prosecutors to decide if his parents should face criminal charges. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Lisa Paul likely will begin reviewing the case in the coming days. She doesn't expect to make a charging decision in the near future, however. "It's quite an extensive investigation, and I want to review it thoroughly before I make any decision," she said. The boy, identified as "A.J." in court papers, ingested a lethal amount of salicylates, a chemical common in aspirin and other over-the-counter drugs. The medical examiner declined to conduct an autopsy on the boy, making it difficult to determine how the drug ended up in the boy's system. A
Keep reading