NEW BRUNSWICK — A Middlesex County jury left the courthouse for the fourth time Monday evening without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of Tianle Li of Monroe, officials said.
By Charles W. Kim, Packet Media Group
NEW BRUNSWICK — A Middlesex County jury left the courthouse for the fourth time Monday evening without reaching a verdict in the murder trial of Tianle Li of Monroe, officials said.
The jury began deliberating the case last Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday before being dismissed for the Fourth of July holiday on Thursday, Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Jim O’Neil said in an email last Wednesday evening.
The panel then returned for deliberations on Friday and again Monday without reaching a verdict in the case, according to officials.
Ms. Li, 44, of Stanley Drive in Monroe, is charged with killing her estranged husband, Xiaoye Wang, 39, in 2011 by slowly poisoning him with the chemical thallium.
On Jan. 14, 2011, the date the Monroe couple’s divorce was supposed to be finalized, Mr. Wang checked himself into the University Medical Center at Princeton while suffering from flu-like symptoms such as lung ailments and congestion.
Eleven days later, the hospital discovered he had been poisoned with thallium, but there wasn’t enough time to cure him, and he died the next day after falling into a coma.
Thallium is a soft, odorless, malleable and highly toxic metal found in the earth’s crust. It was used in rat poisoning and insecticides in the United States before production of the metal was banned in 1984.
Outside the United States, it primarily is used in electronic devices, switches and closures.
At least five cases involving thallium poisoning have been publicized within the past few decades.
Ms. Li, a chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb on Route 206, pleaded not guilty Feb. 9, 2011, to the charges of hindering apprehension and causing the death of her husband.
During the trial, which is now in its seventh week, the prosecution tried to prove that Ms. Li used her position at work to acquire the deadly substance and then alleges that she administered it to him over a period of time, including while he was hospitalized.
Mr. Wang’s family also filed a civil lawsuit against the hospital and Bristol-Myers Squibb in addition to the criminal case.
According to the family, Mr. Wang told doctors that his wife was poisoning him, and on Jan. 18 they began testing him for thallium poisoning, but the positive results did not come until a week later.
Brian Fritz, attorney for the firm representing the family, said in an earlier interview that the medical center should have taken affirmative, proactive measures to make sure Mr. Wang was safe and secure in the hospital facility.
”They didn’t call anyone outside of the hospital until he slipped into a coma,” he said in the earlier interview.
Mr. Wang’s brothers, Xiabing and Weigou, came from China and Washington state, respectively, to file the complaint in Camden and take care of Mr. Wang’s house on Stanley Drive.
Ultimately Mr. Wang and Ms. Li’s small child, Isaac, 4, would be the one to receive the estate. Isaac is currently staying with Ms. Li’s mother.
The jury will continue considering the case Tuesday.