Trial underway in Modesto restaurant slaying

A defendant accused of bludgeoning his boss with a meat cleaver told Modesto police he was trying to scare him with the knife before the deadly confrontation.

Zhi Jian Mei, 33, is on trial charged with murder and robbery in the death of Wing Ming Chan, 47, of Modesto. Chan’s death occurred sometime after 9 p.m. May 4, 2011, at his restaurant, China Gourmet, in the Century Center Plazain northeast Modesto.

Modesto police Detective Jim Munoz testified Monday about questioning Mei after his arrest. The defendant told investigators that he ran from his boss into a kitchen, where he grabbed the meat cleaver.

“I wanted to scare him, so I brandished the knife,” Mei said, according to Munoz’s testimony.

Munoz told the jury that Mei said Chan retreated into a back room after Mei grabbed the meat cleaver, and the defendant followed Chan.

The defendant told investigators that he and Chan struggled to gain control of the meat cleaver, cutting themselves with the blade. Munoz testified that Mei said, “I was scared, so I beat him until he died.”

Craig Grogan, then a Modesto police detective, testified Monday that Mei had some cuts and puncture wounds on his hands, bruises on his face, neck and chest and a minor cut on his shoulder. Two cuts on his hands required sutures at Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, according to Grogan, who is now an investigator for the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office.

Authorities believe Mei used the meat cleaver to kill Chan while robbing him. Modesto police have said Chan and Mei, then a three-year employee at the restaurant, were involved in an argument that escalated to the attack.

Investigators found pants and shoes that appeared to be covered in blood in a dumpster at Mei’s apartment complex and the suspected murder weapon inside Mei’s home.

During his interrogation, Mei told police he never saw Chan’s wallet. Investigators found the wallet inside Mei’s car parked at a police facility the day after Chan’s death.

Mei told investigators that Chan was regularly deducting money from his paycheck because he owed his boss money. Mei said he waited until after closing hours to talk to Chan at the restaurant that night.

Last week, Modesto police Sgt. Steve Stanfield testified that investigators found nearly $1,600 in cash in Chan’s pants pockets and another $280 in a cookie tin underneath the restaurant’s front counter.

Mei told police that he left the restaurant that night not realizing he had taken the meat cleaver home with him. Munoz testified that Mei told them he arrived home and showered before police took him into custody.

Testimony in the murder trial is expected to continue Wednesday in Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Trial underway in Modesto restaurant slaying."