The Hillsborough Heiress Murder Case: All Charges Dropped Against Co-Defendant Kaveh Bayet
REDWOOD CITY (CBS SF) -- One of the highest profile trials in recent San Mateo County history came to an end Thursday when prosecutors announced they would not retry Kaveh Bayat for his alleged role in the Hillsborough heiress murder case.
In November, jurors found 31-year-old Tiffany Li, heiress to a Chinese real estate fortune, not guilty in the April 2016 murder of the father of her children -- Keith Green -- while the couple was embroiled in heated custody battle.
The same jury deadlocked on a verdict for co-defendant and boyfriend Kaveh Bayat - 6-6 on the murder charge and 7-5 on conspiracy - and Judge Robert Foiles declared a mistrial.
(L-R) Tiffany Li, Olivier Adella, Kaveh Bayat (San Mateo County Sheriff's Office)
On Thursday, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe announced his office would not seek a new trial on the counts Bayat was facing.
"I'm Going to eat some Iranian food," Bayat said on his way out of the San Mateo County Jail. After three years in custody, Bayat walked free just after three o'clock Thursday. He was met by his family and he said he was "happy."
The case grabbed national headlines when Li was required to post an astonishing $35 million bail that allowed her to stay in her home. It was based on the prosecutors fears that she was a flight risk.
"The question was, today, for Mr. Bayat; will we retry him?" said Wagstaffe. "Did I feel there was something that could occur differently in another trial? And I have concluded that the answer to that is no."
Despite that decision, Wagstaffe insisted that his opinion on the matter at large has not changed.
"I absolutely, without question, believe there are no other suspects out there who could be responsible for the death of Keith Green," Wagstaffe said just before Bayat's release.
But Wagstaffe also added that Thursday's decision means any new, compelling evidence could change the circumstances for Bayat.
On whether that means the case is still effectively open, "Fair question," Wagstaffe said. "I would not call it being pursued, but I would say, in the police world, they'll say a case has moved into inactive status. As you all know, there's no statute of limitations as to murder. If anything comes up, for the remainder of his life, that would point to him, would be additional evidence, we can go right back and file the charges again if that were ever to come forward."
Wagstaffe said the case had no eyewitnesses or smoking gun, and the trial was an uphill battle from the start.
"With circumstantial evidence you have to say will all these pieces amount to enough. For Miss Li, it obviously was not enough and that was a miscalculation on our part," Wagstaffe said on the day of the jury's decision.
Prosecutors claimed that Li, whose family in China made a fortune in real estate construction, lured Green to her chateau-style mansion in 2016 to discuss the children, where Bayat allegedly forced a gun into Green's mouth, breaking a tooth, and pulled the trigger.
San Mateo Deputy District Attorney Bryan Abanto said Li and Bayat then hired Bayat's friend Olivier Adella to dispose of Green's body, which was eventually found decomposing off the side of a road in Sonoma County, and took steps to cover their crime by creating alibis for themselves.
Defense lawyers countered that Adella murdered Green in a botched kidnapping attempt, claiming prosecutors ignored evidence pointing to him.
Adella pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder after the fact. Last week, Wagstaffe said there was insufficient evidence to charge Adella with Green's murder and he will likely be released in January after being sentenced to time served.
