Two men were arrested on Thursday for the murder of Oakland dentist Lili Xuxu. According to Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, financial benefit was the motive behind the killing.
One of the suspects was Nelson Chia, 73, who was Xu’s long-time boyfriend. The other was Hasheem Bason, 33, from Stockton. The DA’s office said that the pair conspired to kill Xu for profit.
Chia killed himself after he was taken into custody.
On August 21, at around 2:03 p.m. in Oakland’s Little Saigon neighborhood, Xu was shot and killed while getting out of a car.
The arrest warrant said that Chia was driving the car that Xu was in while Bason committed the murder.
Chia said the couple was running errands during the day and arrived at an appointment for massages when the murder happened.
In an interview, Chia said that Xu had multiple life insurance policies, trusts, LLCs, real property, and accounts worth up to $14 million. According to him, he was the trustee for the trusts and stood to get $1 million from life insurance policies.
After the murder, Chia gained control of “numerous financial accounts belonging to Xu,” per the warrant. “Investigators further learned that Chia orchestrated the accounts and trusts so that he would have an income from the estate of Lili Xu for the rest of his life,” it said.
A search warrant was executed at Bason’s home where several firearms were discovered, including one that was used to kill Xu. The warrant also said that Chia agreed to give Bason “a significant amount of money” for killing her.
