Chen bangs head on wall after being found guilty

A federal jury yesterday rendered a unanimous guilty verdict against Zhaopeng Chen, who proceeded to shock the judge and other people in the courtroom when he cried and suddenly banged his head on the wooden wall next to his table.

Two U.S. Marshals Service officers immediately tackled the handcuffed but resisting Chen to the floor. Two other officers jumped in to assist the marshals.

Chen appeared unconscious as the marshals and officers dragged him out from the courtroom. U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona witnessed the incident. The jurors were already out when the brief commotion happened.

A court staff read the verdict at 11:35am finding Chen guilty as to the charge of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The offense carries a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.

Manglona set the sentencing for Dec. 14, 2016 at 9am.

After the court staff read the verdict, Chen was seen asking something to interpreter Betty Bai, who was seated beside him. Chen then nodded his head in disbelief, put his eyeglasses on the table, and started crying.

Manglona discharged the jurors and set the sentencing date. Chen stated something in Fujian. Bai said she could not understand dialect.

Manglona advised Chen about his right to appeal.

As soon as Manglona adjourned the hearing and stood up, Chen uttered something in a loud voice, stood up, and banged the left side of his head on the wooden wall.

After Chen was tackled to the floor and taken out of the courtroom, defense counsel David G. Banes and assistant U.S. attorney Garth Backe followed Manglona to a room.

Attorney Claire Kelleher-Smith, who assisted Banes throughout the trial, was observed being teary eyed.

In an interview, Banes said they’re disappointed with the verdict and that they are going to appeal.

“There were some issues that we had about the jury instructions, about some laws that came in, some facts that came in,” Banes said.

The defense counsel said the two main witnesses—Huang and Cai—testified that either Chen was not involved or he wasn’t sure that Chen was involved, and the jury came back with a verdict of guilty.

“So that’s…it’s a little surprising,” Banes said.

Banes said he actually expected a guilty verdict but for other reasons.

Asked why he expected a guilty verdict, Banes said he prefers not to answer that.

The 12 jurors began deliberating on Tuesday afternoon. They resumed deliberations yesterday at 8am.

The trial began last Aug. 30. The prosecution called 12 witnesses, including Chen’s co-defendant Shicheng Cai.

The defense called to the witness stand, the other co-defendant Xi Huang, who was tagged as the leader of the group behind the shipment from China of 4.9 lbs of methamphetamine or “ice.”

The indictment charged Chen, Cai, and Huang, all Chinese nationals, with conspiracy with the intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Cai and Huang pleaded guilty. Cai has yet to be sentenced, while Huang was recently slapped with a sentence of 188 months imprisonment.

Customs inspectors discovered the contraband hidden in one of nine paint buckets during a routine inspection at the seaport of a shipping container from China on Dec. 2, 2015.

Local and federal enforcers replaced the “ice” with sugar and conducted a surveillance operation that led to the arrest of Huang, Cai, and Chen on Dec. 4, 2015, near Stanford Hotel in San Vicente.

The worth of the “ice” was estimated at $850,000, making it the second largest illegal drugs haul in CNMI history.

The July 2015 arrest of Zhenlin Fang and Yuliu Liu and the seizure and detection of over 10,700 grams of “ice” worth about $4.3 million was reportedly the biggest illegal drugs haul in the Commonwealth.