Overview

• Yang Zhao, a 30-year-old Chinese national, is accused of murdering his flatmate Qiong Yan in 2020, concealing her body in a toolbox for ten months, and defrauding her mother of $463,000.
• Prosecutors argue Zhao was motivated by financial pressure, citing his gambling debts and lavish lifestyle, and allege he killed Yan by striking her with a metal bottle and strangling her.
• Zhao’s defense claims Yan’s death was accidental due to nitrous oxide use and that his confessions to police were fabricated under fear and stress.
• Forensic evidence was inconclusive due to body decomposition, but a pathologist testified that injuries could suggest strangulation or trauma consistent with the prosecution's claims.
• The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday after hearing closing arguments, with Zhao having pleaded guilty only to interfering with Yan’s corpse.