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Pumpkin's dad Xue guilty of wife's murder

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-06-20 13:30

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A New Zealander was found guilty Saturday of his wife's murder in a case that sparked an international manhunt after he abandoned his toddler at a train station and fled to the United States.

Nai Yin Xue shouted, "I'm innocent, I'm innocent!" and pumped his fist in the air as the judge sent him into police custody for sentencing July 31 at the High Court in Auckland. Some members of the all-women jury wiped away tears.

This handout photo from NZealand police in 2007 shows An An Liu (R), mother of "Pumpkin" Qian Xun Xue (L), and father Nai Yin Xue, in Auckland. [Agencies]

The jury found that Xue killed his 28-year-old wife, An An Liu, in September 2007, then took their three-year-old daughter from New Zealand to Australia.

The girl, Qian Xun Xue, was later found crying at a train station in the southeastern city of Melbourne after her father abandoned her and fled to the United States. She was nicknamed "Pumpkin" because of the brand of clothing she was wearing.

Related readings:  'Pumpkin' Xue returns to China with grandmother

Eight days after Xue fled, police found Liu's naked body in the trunk of Xue's car with a necktie around her neck. The prosecution said she had been strangled to death.

US authorities launched a manhunt for Xue, who was captured nearly five months later by six Chinese Americans near Atlanta, Georgia, after the group recognized him from a newspaper.

Xue, 55, a martial arts expert and owner-publisher of the Auckland-based Chinese Times newspaper, was extradited to New Zealand to face the murder charge, which carries a life sentence.

Defense lawyer Chris Comeskey told the court Xue did not kill Liu, but said she may have died accidentally during a consensual sex act involving a tie. Xue did not know his wife was dead when he flew to Melbourne, he said.

Comeskey said Xue was "devastated" by the verdict.

Speaking outside the court after the verdict, inquiry head Detective Senior Sergeant Simon Scott said the toddler was "happy, healthy and thriving" with her grandmother in China.