suntimes
UNLIKELY

Life in prison for NJ chemist who poisoned husband

Trianle Li weeps after she was sentenced Monday Sept. 30 2013 life prisfor poisoning murder her husband. Tianle Li won't

Trianle Li weeps after she was sentenced Monday, Sept., 30, 2013, to life in prison for the poisoning murder of her husband. Tianle Li won't be eligible for parole for more than 62 years. | AP Photo

storyidforme: 55776662
tmspicid: 20430789
fileheaderid: 9481675

Updated: September 30, 2013 10:43AM



NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A judge in New Jersey has sentenced a chemist to life prison for fatally poisoning her husband during a contentious divorce.

Tianle Li was sentenced Monday. She won’t be eligible for parole for nearly 63 years.

Li denies killing her husband and is appealing her conviction.

The Monroe resident worked for New York City-based biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prosecutors alleged she poisoned husband Xiaoye Wang, a computer software engineer, by giving him thallium, a tasteless, odorless poison, which she ordered through work in 2010.

Thallium is banned for consumer use in the United States. It can be fatal in tiny doses and is difficult to detect in lab tests.

Wang died in January 2011.

Judge Michael Toto says Wang’s murder was “planned, calculated and committed in a cruel and depraved manner.”





© 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.