Hillsborough homicide defendant walks free

“The biggest thing was what we didn’t have,” Wagstaffe said Thursday. “We didn’t have anything new.”

Jurors returned not guilty verdicts in November for co-defendant Tiffany Li in the death of 27-year-old Keith Cameron Green, whose body was found off a road in Sonoma County.

Prosecutors had accused Bayat of shooting Green, who disappeared in April 2016 after meeting with Li at the Millbrae Pancake House. Bayat had been living with Li at the time of Green’s death.

Defense attorney John May, who represented Bayat, spoke Thursday about the district attorney’s motion to dismiss the case Thursday — more than a month after the jury trial that resulted in a deadlock for Bayat and acquittal for Li.

“They took a lot of time to consider what they needed to,” May said. “This was a very difficult decision for the district attorney.”

“It was the right decision,” May said.

Prosecutors had originally built their case on the testimony of Olivier Adella, a 44-year-old Burlingame man who had admitted to disposing of Green’s body in a plea deal. He had pleaded no contest to accessory to murder and was set to testify in the recent trial. That case was called into question when he was accused of intimidating a witness just before Li and Bayat’s trial was to begin in September.

On Dec. 12, prosecutors withdrew a motion to drop his plea deal and decided evidence was not sufficient to move forward with new charges. He is in custody on no bail and set to appear for sentencing Jan. 10, however, he has already served his maximum sentence of three years for his accessory charge.

Bayat’s co-defendant Li was able to post bail with $4 million in cash and $62 million in property bonds and was out of custody after her arrest and during the 48-day jury trial. Li was dubbed the “Hillsborough heiress” because of her residence in the upscale community.

Conditions of bail included her remaining under house arrest, surrendering all passports and possessing no firearms.

Bayat could not make the same $35 million bail and was in custody until his release Thursday afternoon.

Deputy District Attorney Bryan Abanto had spoken during the murder and conspiracy trial about the evidence — which included texts from phones of Li, Bayat and Green — as technical.

Abanto contended a custody battle spurred Li to get rid of Green, the father of her two children. The prosecutor alleged Li and Bayat lured Green to the Hillsborough home Li once shared with Green.

May Mar, one of Li’s attorneys, said no evidence Li showed conspired to kill Green. Li during phone calls indicated she wanted Green in her daughters’ lives, defense attorney Mar said.

“The man who killed Keith Green is not in this courtroom,” Mar had said during the trial.

ryan@smdailyjournal.com

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