Ex-girlfriend: Christensen studied serial killers

The ex-girlfriend of the man accused of murdering Chinese visiting scholar Zhang Yingying testified on Wednesday that he asked her to read the 1991 novel American Psycho about a serial killer.

Terra Bullis was testifying in the capital murder trial of Brendt Christensen in federal district court in Peoria, Illinois.

Earlier on Wednesday, an FBI biologist testified that DNA and bloodstains found in both Christensen's apartment and the car belonged to Zhang.

A lawyer for Christensen said in court that his client killed Zhang, a graduate student from China who was attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The lawyer last week took the unusual approach of acknowledging his client had killed Zhang in an effort to spare Christensen, a former graduate student at the university, a federal death penalty.

Bullis said Christensen ordered her to read the novel by Bret Easton Ellis about a Wall Street investment banker who becomes a serial killer, after she had watched the movie version, according to newspaper website The News-Gazette.

The witness said she recalled Christensen saying the main character was an attractive, intelligent man. She said he talked about serial killers and mentioned Ted Bundy, a notorious serial killer who confessed to killing at least 30 young women and girls in the 1970s across seven states and was executed by the state of Florida in 1989.

Bullis agreed to wear a wire for the FBI on June 16, 2017, a week after Zhang was last seen alive, after getting into a car in Urbana that later was identified as Christensen's.

The FBI furnished her with two recording devices - one in a coffee mug, and a small device about the size of a Post-it note, she testified, according to The News-Gazette.

On June 17, when Christensen told her that he used a large duffel bag to transport a large present, his story didn't make sense, she said.

The same day, Christensen told Bullis that authorities found blood on a baseball bat belonging to him.

On June 23, he texted Bullis that "I was the one who picked that girl up. I dropped her off shortly after. I didn't do anything wrong".

Bullis is going to continue her testimony on Thursday.

FBI biologist Amanda Bakker compared samples from Zhang's DNA found on her toothbrush with blood samples taken from the baseball bat.

DNA discovered one swab sample that had a 1 in 44 sextillion chance that it came from a random person and not from Zhang.

DNA matches also were found on two other mattresses, bloodstained carpet and drywall behind a bed.

According to Assistant US Attorney Eugene Miller, federal prosecutors were expected to call their final witnesses in the trial and rest their case on Thursday.

The defense attorneys could conclude witness testimony and cross-examination as early as Thursday, The News-Gazette reported.

The closing arguments and jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday. If the verdict is guilty, the jury will later convene about whether to impose the death penalty or life in prison.

The trial is the first capital murder case in Illinois since the state's death penalty ban took effect in 2011. Because Christensen is being tried in federal court, a capital murder charge can result in the death penalty.

Contact the writers at ruinanzhang@chinadailyusa.com.

(China Daily 06/21/2019 page12)