Chinese man confesses to Iowa killing during trial

A Chinese man has confessed to killing his girlfriend in the United States but denied it was a planned murder at a trial that opened on Wednesday.

Li Xiangnan, 25, was accused of strangling Shao Tong to death in a motel room on Sept. 7, 2014, when the pair were students in the state of Iowa, according to the Wenzhou Intermediate People's Court.

The murder came to light after Shao's body was found stuffed into the truck of a car on Sept. 26. Li fled to China the next day of the murder and was arrested in June, 2015.

At the trial, held in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, Li admitted to killing Shao after fall-out over Shao's alleged new boyfriend. He placed Shao's body in a suitcase with a dumbbell, but later abandoned his plan of sinking the body into a lake and instead left the body in his car.

Li said he committed the murder out of impulse, while prosecutors said it was a premeditated crime, citing Li's purchase of the suitcase, two dumbbells and the ticket to China before the murder.

The court said it would announce the verdict on another date, given the complexity of the case. Endit