Former client who killed her Great Neck immigration lawyer gets 25 years to life

A former client convicted of stabbing her Great Neck immigration lawyer and activist Jim Li to death was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison, the Queens district attorney announced.

Xiaoning Zhang, 27, of Flushing, was found guilty by a jury in September of murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges in Li’s 2022 killing. Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder, who presided over that trial, sentenced her to the maximum allowed penalty.

"It is our hope that with this sentencing, the family, loved ones and legal community can find some solace in knowing the defendant has been held accountable for her crimes," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a news release.

Prosecutors said Li, 66, who served time in a Chinese jail after participating in the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and giving legal representation to an independent labor union that challenged Beijing’s workforce policies, had agreed to represent Zhang pro bono in her immigration case.

Prosecutors said that in March 2022, Zhang became enraged when Li, who was handling her asylum application, told her he would not also work to have a picture of her at a protest in front of the United Nations removed from the internet.

When Zhang told Li she had lied on her immigration application about being raped by Chinese police, he told her he would no longer represent her in her immigration case. She responded by putting her hands around his neck and choking him, prosecutors said. Police escorted her from Li’s office in Flushing and told her not to return. But she did, just days later, armed with the two kitchen knives she used to kill him, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Zhang, Scott Celestin, referred a request for comment to Queens Defenders, a public defender service. That organization did not respond to a request for comment.

Flushing lawyer Wayne Zhu, a friend of Li’s who sometimes handled criminal defense referrals from his office, said Li had declined to press charges against Zhang after she choked him because he did not want to harm her immigration application.

Zhu said that on the day Zhang killed Li, she came to Li’s office with a cake and apologized for her earlier behavior. "She wanted to make Jim lose his vigilance," Zhu said. "She made use of Jim’s trust and kindness to murder him."

Zhu, who attended the sentencing, said he believed Zhang's penalty was appropriate. "Jim’s life will never be returned and his family will suffer for the rest of their lives."

The case, Zhu added, had "terrorized" many lawyers in Flushing, prompting some to add security measures to their offices.

A spokesman for Katz, Brendan Brosh, said he could not corroborate all the details of Zhu's account. But, he said, Li had declined to press charges, and Zhang "came back with a pastry and two knives."