Following the Thursday arrest of a key murder trial witness, prosecutors trying a case against a Hillsborough woman accused of conspiring to murder the father of her two daughters have decided not to use the witness’ testimony and to take steps to set aside his plea deal.
Believed to have been a co-conspirator of 34-year-old Tiffany Li in the 2016 murder of 27-year-old Keith Green, Olivier Adella was taken into custody Thursday on accusations he attempted to intimidate a defense witness in the trial for Li and her 32-year-old boyfriend Kaveh Bayat, who is believed to have pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Green, according to prosecutors.
By using social media to intimidate another witness, Adella — who pleaded no contest to accessory to murder in 2018 and agreed to testify as a witness against Li and Bayat — violated the terms of his release from custody. Opening statements from Li and Bayat’s trial, which began Aug. 19, were slated to begin Thursday but were delayed after news of Adella’s alleged actions broke and prosecutors requested him to be remanded back into custody. They were delayed again when Judge Robert Foiles opted on Monday to set opening statements Sept. 23 to allow for further trial motions to be filed, according to prosecutors.
Expected to shed light on the alleged actions the trio took to murder Green, Adella’s plea deal in February of 2018 was seen as a turning point in the case. Adella, a 44-year-old Burlingame man believed to have disposed of Green’s body, previously faced murder charges with Li and Bayat.
Li was alleged to have a custody dispute with Green at the time of his 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 previously.
Li posted $35 million bail by putting up several Bay Area properties valued at $62 million along with $4 million in cash in April 2017. Bayat was also assigned $35 million bail but remains in custody and Adella is in custody on no bail status, according to prosecutors previously.
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