Gruesome evidence revealed in Hillsborough heiress murder case

ByEd Walsh KGO logo
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Gruesome evidence revealed in Hillsborough heiress murder case
Jurors in the murder case against the Hillsborough heiress accused of killing the father of her children heard horrific details of the crime Wednesday.

HILLSBOROUGH, Calif. (KGO) -- Jurors in the murder case against the Hillsborough heiress accused of killing the father of her children heard horrific details of the crime Wednesday.

The panel was shown crime scene photos of the badly decomposed body of Keith Green in a field near Healdsburg, in Sonoma County in May 2016. Two of Green's supporters wept as the photos were shown.

Defendant Tiffany Li didn't look at the photos, while her co-defendant Kaveh Bayat looked intently as the photos were displayed on an overhead projector.

RELATED: Who's Who in Hillsborough Heiress murder case

Green's body could be seen in the crime scene photos with his left and right arms stretched out and his legs spread apart. An official with the Sonoma County Coroner's office said it appeared that his body had been partially eaten by animals.

A now-retired Sonoma County Coroner official, Dr. Anthony Chapman, told jurors that "it's not like TV" and that he could not pinpoint the exact date of Green's death but that his body had been there for at least a week. Chapman said Green's cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head,

The trial got contentious during the morning session when Li's attorney Geoff Carr made a motion for a mistrial because he said he was getting too much discovery evidence from the prosecution "on the fly" and with virtually no time to prepare. Judge Robert Foiles did not grant the motion but admonished the lawyers to adhere to court rules..

The case was dramatically changed last week when the prosecution kicked their star witness, Olivier Adella, off the case after he allegedly tried to contact a defense witness, his ex-girlfriend, through Instagram.

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with ABC-7 iTeam reporter Dan Noyes in November 2017, Adella said he reluctantly agreed to dispose of Green's body out of fear for his life and his family's safety if he didn't cooperate. He added that he was afraid the couple might try to pin the murder on him if he didn't go along.

The case is expected to last until mid-November.

Li is free on bail-- $62 million in property and $4 million cash. Bayat's bail amount was set at $35 million and he remains in jail.

Li's bail was also set at $35 million but the bail formula allows for property to be substituted for cash at 50-percent of the property's value.

MURDER MYSTERY TIMELINE: The disappearance of Millbrae resident Keith Green

During the morning session, the prosecution showed numerous text messages between Bayat, Li and Adella and at one point displayed a group photo of all three along with Adella's wife and two unidentified children. The prosecution may have been aiming to deflate the defense's argument that Li was not close to Adella.

The defense argued that Adella and two accomplices were responsible for Green's death in a kidnapping gone wrong. After his arrest in May 2016, Adella was found in possession of one of Green's expensive watches. Prosecutors say the watch was in his possession before Green was killed. Green collected watches which he had kept in a case.

Follow the latest on this trial here.