Photo by Tex Texin at flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/textexin/3612094774/
A 51-year-old man accused of killing a housemate who he suspected was having an affair with his wife pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a murder charge.
Heping Gan is charged in last Thursday’s beating death of Jinguo Jiang, 55, whose body was found wedged into a small space in the backyard of an Alhambra rental house in the 1200 block of South Sierra Vista Avenue, with a cardboard box over his head.
The murder charge includes an allegation that Gan used a pipe during the commission of the crime.
Gan is also charged with one felony count each of forcible oral copulation, making criminal threats and injuring a spouse, cohabitant, fiance, boyfriend, girlfriend or child’s parent in connection with an alleged domestic dispute involving another alleged victim, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. John Corina told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune that Gan suspected that his wife and the victim were having an affair. Gan subsequently tried to drive off Abajo Drive in Monterey Park and attempted to cut his own throat and wrist, the lieutenant told the newspaper.
The home where the defendant and the victim lived had been divided into eight small bedrooms, with three more in the garage, and was occupied by renters of Chinese descent, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Gan, who was taken into custody soon after the victim’s body was discovered, remains jailed on $2 million bail and is due back in an Alhambra courtroom Feb. 15.
If convicted as charged, he could face a maximum of life in state prison, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
–City News Service
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