PEORIA, Ill. (WAND)-Jurors heard sometimes emotional testimony from Yingying Zhang's friends and her fiance as Brendt Christensen's sentencing began Monday.
Zhang's fiance, Xialoin Hou, 30, described how the two met while in college, studied together, volunteered together, and planned to marry.
"She's kind. She's brave. She's sweet," he said. "She's the best girl I've ever met."
Prosecutors also played videos of interviews with Zhang's college friends.
"Wherever she went, she would send us a postcard," said friend Cai Ye through a translator. "She left the impression she was a free spirit."
Zhang enjoyed traveling and volunteering, including working in poor rural schools in China.
"How big is the world? I will measure it with my feet," Zhang wrote in a message.
Another friend, Lisha Fang, said Zhang looked forward to starting a family.
"When I was pregnant, she was more excited than I was," she said. "She would describe to me her expectation to become a mother one day."
Lisha Fang said she had mixed feelings when Zhang left for America.
"Yingying was rather innocent ... sometimes she's too kind," she said.
The women described the pain Zhang's death has caused them.
"I feel very sad," Cai Ye said. "I am hurting inside. She occupied a very important spot in my life. It is especially hard for me to accept.
During opening statements Monday afternoon, prosecutors and defense attorneys described Zhang and Christensen in humanizing detail.
Prosecutors described Yingying Zhang as a loving daughter who traveled to the United States to study crop science.
"Yingying lived up to her name ... she was the bright and shining light of her family," prosecutor James Nelson told jurors. "She was the hope of her family ... the first one to go to college."
Nelson told jurors that Christensen not only killed Yingying Zhang, he deprived her family of the chance to bring her body home.
"The defendant didn't stop with killing Yingying Zhang, he made her body disappear," Nelson said. "You will see, you will hear, the anguish this has caused."
Christensens' attorneys described him as a bright young man plagued by a family history of mental illness and addiction. They described an incident in which Christensen at age 15 jumped from the family's back deck in mid-winter, then ran into a moving van.
"Paramedics were sure this kid was on some kind of illegal drug, but he wasn't," Christensen's attorney said.
She told jurors Christensen has been a model inmate while in jail and that he would never be released from prison.
"By your guilty verdict, you have ensured Brendt Christensen will die in prison," she said. "The only question is when that death will happen."
Judge James Shadid read some of the prosecution's aggravating factors to jurors: that killing Zhang hurt her family, that Christensen lacks remorse, that Zhang was particularly vulnerable and that Christensen tried to obstruct the investigation into her death by making false statements and disposing of Zhang's body.
He also read mitigating factors presented by Christensen's defense, including Christensen's family history of alcohol abuse and mental illness, the fact that he is loved by his mother and father, Christensen's history of brain injury, sleep problems and depression, the fact that Christensen sought help for his mental problems and the fact that he has no other criminal history.
Prosecutors have said they plan to call Zhang's fiance to the stand and to play video of interviews with Zhang's friends and teachers.
