Second trial of Chongqing sister and brother fall case: Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen retracted their confessions in court, and the prosecution refuted it with evidence

The Paper reporter Xie Yinzong

After 13 hours, the second-instance trial of Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen's intentional homicide appeal case (that is, the Chongqing sister and brother death case) that opened at 4:6 a.m. on April 9 ended at 30:10 p.m.

On November 2020, 11, Zhang Bo, who lives in Jinjiang Huafu, Nan'an District, Chongqing, threw his 2-year-old daughter Xuexue (pseudonym) and 2-year-old son Yangyang (pseudonym) from their home on the 1th floor, killing two children. The South Coast police investigated and found that the suspect in this intentional homicide case was not only Zhang Bo, but also his girlfriend Ye Chengchen.

After a first-instance trial, the Fifth Intermediate Court of Chongqing Municipality held that Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen had broken through the bottom line of human ethics, morality, and law, and their social impact was extremely bad. Moreover, the motives of the two were particularly despicable, the subjective malignancy was extremely deep, the methods of crime were particularly cruel, the circumstances of the crime were particularly bad, and the consequences and crimes were extremely serious. Ye Chengchen and Zhang Bo have the same status and role in the joint crime.

Accordingly, on December 2021, 12, the Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court sentenced Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen to death in the first instance, depriving them of political rights for life. After the judgment of the first instance, the two defendants appealed.

Observers who participated in the second trial of the case told The Paper (www.thepaper.cn) on the evening of April 4 that Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen retracted their confessions in court during the second trial trial. Zhang Bo said that the child's fall was an accident, not that he fell down. Ye Chengchen said that the content of the conspiracy to kill the two children in the WeChat chat records recovered by the police was just an impulsive discussion between the two and did not want to implement it, and said that he had mental illness. "For their retracted confessions and the defenders' defenses, the prosecutors appearing in court responded through a set of evidence and video materials."

Observers said that Zhang Bo, Ye Chengchen, their defenders, and procurators appearing in court fully expressed their opinions on the facts, evidence, and application of law in the case. The court held that the focus of the trial included the issue of the principal accomplices of the two defendants and the procedures for collecting evidence, a total of 7, of which 3 had replied in court.

At about 4:6 on April 22, the court adjourned the trial, saying that the case would be pronounced at a later date.

The biological father denied in court that he threw the two children downstairs, arguing that it was an accident

Xue Xiao (pseudonym), an observer who participated in the first and second trials, told The Paper that he did not expect that Zhang Bo, who had no objection to the basic facts and charges of the charges in the first instance, would retract his confession in the second trial, but Ye Chengchen's retraction was expected.

Xue Xiao said that the most important thing he can remember about Zhang Bo's confession is that he denied throwing the two children downstairs, instead saying that the two children accidentally fell down. Two of his defenders also provided some relevant evidence in court. But the prosecutor appearing in court also rebutted this by presenting evidence.

The Paper previously reported that in the first-instance judgment of the Fifth Intermediate Court of Chongqing, the initiation of the criminal intent in this case and the determination of the facts of Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen jointly killing the two victims were evaluated. The Chongqing Fifth Intermediate People's Court held that Zhang Bo's confession that he held the legs of the two children and threw the two children downstairs from the bay window at the same time corroborated with Zhang Bo's barefoot footprints confirming that there were Zhang Bo's bare footprints on the windowsill of the bay window, palm print marks of snow and snow on the edge of the side window frame under the bay window, blood stains of snow and snow at the scene of the fall, and the "Record of Investigation" and "Appraisal Certificate" that the second victim was killed by a high fall.

"Zhang Bo's defender also said that Zhang Bo did not make a guilty confession in his previous interrogations because the police forced a confession to induce a confession." Xue Xiao said that as for Zhang Bo's defender's claims, the prosecution refuted them by showing synchronized audio and video recordings of the public security organs' investigation stage.

According to evidence obtained by The Paper, after the case was discovered on November 2020, 11, when the police handling the case questioned Zhang Bo's situation, they checked Zhang Bo's mobile phone and found that he checked the content of "2 babies fell to the ground at the same time" through his mobile phone Baidu at 2020:10 and 23:10 p.m. on October 39, 10.

At the same time, according to Zhang Bo's statement, he entered the accident room many times before and after, saw the child playing by the window, but did not close the window, did not take the child out of the danger area, and Zhang Bo and his girlfriend Ye Chengchen's WeChat chat records were all deleted, which is unreasonable. The public security organ suspected that the fall case was a criminal case, and first opened a case for investigation on the suspicion of causing death by negligence by Zhang Bo.

After the police extracted and seized Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen's mobile phones, the technical department restored the chat records of the two, and found that the two had the idea of disposing of the two children in order to clear the obstacles to marriage, which was suspected of major crimes.

On November 2020, 11, after the police arrested Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen. The next day, the Nan'an Branch of the Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau opened an investigation into the intentional homicide case of Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen.

Regarding Zhang Bo's defense, Xue Xiao said: "The prosecutor who appeared in court also asked Zhang Bo in court, 'Since you did not kill the child, then why did you delete the chat record to avoid detection, why did you write to Chen Meilin to repent and ask for forgiveness.'" Zhang Bo was speechless.

Another defendant argued that the conspiracy chat records were "impulsive discussions"

Xue Xiao said that as he expected, Ye Chengchen also almost completely retracted his previous statement during the second-instance trial.

First of all, for one of the core evidence accusing Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen of committing crimes - the WeChat chat records of the two recovered by the police.

The "Inspection Report" of the case shows that after testing Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen's mobile phones, the public security organs recovered 17557,2020 WeChat chat records with Zhang Bo from Ye Chengchen's mobile phones, starting from 5:28 on May 11, 21 to 2020:11 on November 2, 18, and the chat records confirmed that Ye Chengchen repeatedly urged Zhang Bo to kill the two children on the grounds that he and his family could not accept the fact that Zhang Bo had children.

Ye Chengchen said that those WeChat chat records were discussed by them on impulse, and they did not want to implement them. At the same time, she said that she was mentally ill and that the chat records were sent by her in a state of mental disorder.

Ye Chengchen's defender also said that these chat records were precisely because she was mentally ill and mentally disordered.

Xue Xiao told The Paper that the prosecution responded to Ye Chengchen and his defender's claim of mental illness and denied it by presenting her psychiatric report at the first-instance stage. In addition, Ye Chengchen's family also made a psychiatric report after the case, which they used to prove that the family had a history of mental illness.

At the same time, Ye Chengchen's defender said that there were problems with the procedures when the police seized Ye Chengchen's mobile phone. Ye Chengchen made a guilty confession under the inducement of the police. His defenders questioned the authenticity and integrity of the WeChat chat records extracted by the police.

The Paper noted that during the first trial, Ye Chengchen also said during the trial that she made a guilty confession in order to help Zhang Bo take the crime under the persuasion of the detention center and the prison staff. The first review of the Fifth Intermediate Court of Chongqing Municipality revealed that Ye Chengchen had made four guilty confessions between December 2020 and 12, 4, and also wrote two letters of confession in his own handwriting, confessing to the fact that he and Zhang Bo jointly murdered and killed their two children, and also confirmed and explained the content of her WeChat chat with Zhang Bo, and the simultaneous audio and video recording of the interrogation reflected that her confession was natural and true and did not receive any coercion, and her confession corroborated with Zhang Bo's confession and WeChat chat records. The Court found that this argument was untenable and dismissed it.

Xue Xiao said that the prosecuting organ also played a simultaneous audio and video recording in court on the issue of inducing confessions by Ye Chengchen and his defenders in court.

What surprised Xue Xiao even more was that Ye Chengchen said in court that she was raped by Zhang Bo in the early days of her relationship with Zhang Bo and was deceived by Zhang Bo.

The biological father who retracted the confession finally expressed repentance

Xue Xiao said that the entire trial process was relatively smooth, but some of the statements made by Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen's defenders during the trial that day made Chen Meilin and his family, who should not have spoken, speak twice.

What made Chen Meilin speak out for the first time was that Ye Chengchen's defender repeatedly asked Zhang Bo "whether there was a problem with the age, height and intelligence of the two children at the time of the crime" when he asked Zhang Bo in court. Xue Xiao said that after Chen Meilin in the audience couldn't bear it anymore, he loudly said to Ye Chengchen's lawyer, "Your baby's intelligence is problematic."

On another occasion, when Zhang Bo's defender apologized to the victim's family and proposed to set up a fund in the name of the two children, Chen Meilin and her mother immediately refused as "no need".

"During the entire trial, Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen said the most about 'can't remember' and 'listen to the lawyer's opinion'." Xue Xiao said that during the defendant's final statement, Zhang Bo, who retracted his confession, still expressed his remorse to the two dead children, and also apologized to Chen Meilin and his parents, and at the same time he expressed regret for his inability to fulfill his mother's filial piety. He said he had made a will and decided to donate his organs if he was sentenced to death.

"Ye Chengchen showed no remorse during the second trial." Xue Xiao said that Ye Chengchen was emotional throughout the trial, and in her final statement, she said that she was not at the scene of the crime, at most an accomplice, she was mentally ill, and hoped that the court would consider her discretion when sentencing.

Xue Xiao said that the entire trial began at 9:3 a.m., except for lunch and afternoon meals, and the trial was adjourned three times for about 10 minutes until 10:<> p.m. One reason for the long trial was that Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen's defenders repeatedly asked questions about the issues explained by the judge and prosecutor many times, and the presiding judge repeatedly reminded the defenders to "pay attention to saving time and not to ask the same question repeatedly."

During the trial, the court held that there were seven focal points in the trial, including the issues of the principal accomplices of the two defendants and the procedures for collecting evidence, of which three were replied by the presiding judge in court, and the other four key issues were also answered in court, and the defense could also submit new written evidence on these four issues.

Xue Xiao said that the opinions expressed by the procurators appearing in court during the trial were almost identical to the wording of the first-instance verdict, mainly holding that the evidence of the public security organs was obtained in accordance with the law, that the evidence of the facts of the crimes of the two defendants was true and sufficient, that the methods of committing crimes were particularly cruel, that the circumstances of the crimes were particularly bad, and that the social impact was extremely bad.

The Chongqing Municipal High Court released news after the trial on the evening of April 4 that on April 6, 2023, the Chongqing Municipal High Court publicly heard the appeal case of Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen for intentional homicide in accordance with the law. During the second-instance trial, Zhang Bo, Ye Chengchen, their defenders and procurators appearing in court fully expressed their opinions on the facts, evidence, and application of law in the case, and Zhang Bo and Ye Chengchen made final statements. The court adjourned the trial and announced the verdict at a later date.

The grandparents of the two murdered children previously said in an interview with The Paper that after suffering for more than a year, the family finally waited for the second trial to begin, and they hoped that the second trial could uphold the death sentence of the first instance.