After his request to travel to Las Vegas and find work was denied Thursday, a man who pleaded no contest to being an accessory to a high-profile murder will remain in the area to await his testimony as a key witness to a trial slated to begin Aug. 19, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Already more than two years old, the case against 33-year-old Tiffany Li, a Hillsborough woman charged with conspiring to murder the father of her two daughters, was delayed this fall to August of 2019. Originally charged with murder alongside Li and her 32-year-old boyfriend Kaveh Bayat, Burlingame man Olivier Adella, 43, admitted in February he helped cover up the 2016 murder of Keith Green, a Millbrae man and father of Li’s children, and agreed to testify at the trial of his co-conspirators, according to prosecutors.
Adella was released from custody Oct. 5 after he spent the equivalent of three years in county jail, the maximum sentence he could receive in his plea deal. Among the conditions of the deal he took are a restriction from traveling more than 100 miles outside of Redwood City and to testify truthfully at the trial, which was delayed earlier this year to give Li time to undergo cancer treatment and allow the defense attorney for Bayat, her co-defendant, to complete work on an unrelated murder trial slated for April, according to prosecutors.
Adella’s defense attorney allegedly said Thursday his client’s open court case is affecting his ability to find a job, but Judge Stephanie Garratt denied his request to be able to travel outside a 100-mile radius around Redwood City, according to prosecutors.
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Expected to shed light on the alleged actions the trio took to murder Green, Adella’s plea deal was seen as a turning point in the case for District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, who noted when the deal was struck his testimony could provide direct evidence of how the crime occurred. Wagstaffe said previously if Adella were to violate the conditions of his plea deal, he could face a murder charge once again.
Li, the mother of Green’s children, is being charged for his murder alongside Bayat, who is being accused of pulling the trigger of the gun that killed Green. Adella allegedly admitted to being involved in disposing of Green’s body after the murder.
Li was alleged to have a custody dispute at the time of 27-year-old Green’s disappearance April 29, 2016. Almost two weeks after he met up with Li at a Millbrae pancake house the evening he disappeared, Green’s body was discovered near a Sonoma County homeless encampment May 11, 2016, according to prosecutors.
Li posted $35 million bail by putting up several Bay Area properties valued at $62 million along with $4 million in cash in April of 2017. Bayat was also assigned $35 million bail but remains in custody, according to prosecutors.
Adella’s defense attorney Dek Ketchum could not be immediately reached for comment.
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(1) comment
Who besides our fine County legal professionals wants to bet Adella won't make a run for it before Christmas?
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.