Rumor spree killer survived quashed at girlfriend’s trial

Media reports indicating that the girlfriend of killer and bank robber Zhou Kehua was not sure whether the man killed by police was her boyfriend shocked the public on Wednesday, fueling rumors the brutal killer was still at large.

However, a report by the Xinhua News Agency later on Wednesday aimed to disprove these rumors, by showing more details that had been provided by prosecutors at Tuesday's trial in Chongqing.

According to a report by the website of the 21st Century Business Herald on Wednesday, Zhang Guiying, 21, pointed to the wrong man when asked in the court to pick out her boyfriend from photos of 12 people. She also said the man shown in a video clip of a killing on August 10 didn't walk the same way as her boyfriend.

Zhou Kehua, the 42-year-old robber and murderer, reportedly killed 10 people between 2004 and 2012 across several cities, usually waiting outside a bank before shooting them. Zhou was gunned down on August 14 during a massive manhunt in the southwestern city of Chongqing after allegedly killing three people and wounding one on August 10.

Zhang was also unable to identify Zhou from a photo showing where he was shot dead, media reports said Wednesday.

The reports were widely spread on microblogs, with speculation resurfacing that the dead man shown in police photos might not be Zhou.

On Wednesday evening, Xinhua reported that Zhang had actually picked Zhou out from 12 people's photos and did this three times, except on the last occasion the photo picked out by Zhang carried another person's identity information on the back. The prosecutors explained that this was their mistake.

Li Yongchao, one of Zhang's two attorneys, told the Global Times Wednesday that neither Zhang nor Zhou's family had ever been asked to identify Zhou's body after he was shot dead.

Li said that Zhang was only given some of Zhou's photos for identification.

According to the Xinhua report, prosecutors provided test results of DNA samples taken from bullet shells at the crime scene, Zhou's body and items confiscated from the two lovers' residence in Yibing, Sichuan Province, showing that the man who committed the killing on August 10 was Zhou and was indeed Zhang's boyfriend.

Media reports indicated that Zhang and Zhou moved to Chongqing in July but ceased living together.

Zhang was charged by prosecutors with harboring the criminal and concealing his illegal gains. After the murder on August 10, Zhou met her outside a bank in Chongqing and gave her 60,000 yuan ($9,642) that he had stolen from the bank.

Prior to August 14 when Zhou was shot dead, she contacted Zhou by phone and sent him text messages to provide information on the police manhunt, while being aware of his crimes.

Zhang claimed that she didn't know the money was from a robbery until she later saw the news, and that all the information she had sent to Zhou was from news reports.

The prosecutors suggested a sentence of four to seven years and also a fine.

"Considering there are still many doubts surrounding Zhang's case, the judge should adhere to the Criminal Law and give no punishment to Zhang or a just lighter one of two or three years," Li said.

The court will announce a verdict at a later date.