Life News
May 27, 2009

A divorce trial spiraled into a grisly murder yesterday at a court in Songming, a county on the outskirts of Kunming, Yunnan Province.

According to today's Life News, at about 12:40 pm yesterday, roughly 10 minutes before the trial was to begin, a verbal argument developed among the more than ten family members from both sides who had arrived at court.

Then the estranged husband, Deng Jiaxi, hacked at his wife Yang Changmei, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, using a sickle. Deng then turned his rage upon Yang's cousin Zhang Liping when she tried to stop him. When Yang fought back at Deng and attempted to wrest the sickle from his grasp, she lost two fingers.

All court personnel hid themselves during the violence, and no bailiff or judge interfered to stop Deng from leaving, or attempted to rescue the wounded － they were eventually sent to the hospital by police, who arrived later.

Yang was in critical condition, while her cousin Zhang died from wounds received to her back. Deng was still at large by the time the paper went to print.

Yang's relatives told the newspaper that they are going to sue the court for nonfeasance and will demand three million yuan in damages.