Mengqi Ji was killed by her husband in 2019. His conviction appeal has failed
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Joseph Elledge, convicted of second-degree murder in November 2021 for the death of his wife Mengqi Ji, has failed to have his conviction overturned on appeal.
The opinion from Missouri's Western District Court of Appeals was issued Tuesday.
Elledge argued that the late Boone County Prosecutor Dan Knight had failed to produce enough evidence that Elledge had intentionally murdered Ji in October 2019 because the state did not establish a cause or manner of death. Judge Thomas Chapman in issuing the opinion balked at this argument.
Elledge had taken the stand in his own defense during the two-week trial in 2021. His testimony, coupled with recordings he and Ji had made and entered as evidence by Knight and other actions done by Elledge following Ji's death could lead a jury to reach a guilty verdict, Chapman wrote.
He cited a 2016 case in which a jury can determine a person knowingly caused the death of another not through proof of direct evidence, but by what is inferred circumstantially.
"The necessary intent may be inferred from surrounding facts such as the defendant’s conduct before the act, from the act itself, and from the defendant’s subsequent conduct," Champman wrote.
When Elledge gave his testimony, he admitted the couple had a fight in which Ji was pushed hard, knocking her to floor where she hit her head. He also admitted on the stand that he searched for a place to bury Ji's body after saying he found her dead in their bed the next morning.
Ji ultimately was buried in a juniper grove in Rock Bridge Memorial State Park south of Columbia, where her remains were discovered in March 2021. Clothing, a purse with identification cards and dental records would lead to Ji's identification. When her remains were found, investigators discovered clean breaks of her ribs in sequence on one side of her body, which was a likely injury before her death.
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"The necessary intent may be inferred from surrounding facts such as the defendant’s conduct before the act, from the act itself, and from the defendant’s subsequent conduct," Champman wrote.
"... It was reasonable for the jury to infer that Elledge knowingly caused victim’s death based on the evidence in front of the jury," he wrote. "Elledge’s behavior following victim’s death supports the jury’s finding that he knowingly caused her death, particularly his extensive efforts to cover up victim’s death and how she died."
Up until Ji's remains were found, Elledge had maintained the claim that she had returned to China to carry on an affair with a man she met through Chinese social media.
Knight called the discovery of Ji's remains a miracle. The murder trial had been set to happen in February 2020, but was postponed until November 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I was trying to get a quick trial date (in February 2020). If I would have tried the case and if there had been an acquittal and then her body would have been found, that would have been a tough one," Knight said, following the verdict.
Who Mengqi Ji was
Ji was born in Xi'an, China, under its one-child policy in 1991. She would have celebrated her 32nd birthday on April 18.
Despite being born under the policy, her parents, Ke Ren and Xiaolin, only ever wanted one child. They wanted to give all of their love to her and Ji was very close to her mother, calling her every day.
When Ji did not call her mother, Ke Ren, on Oct. 9, 2019, she new something must have been wrong.
Ji was an avid calligrapher, artist, photographer and musician, apart from her professional skills as an engineer, working as a supervisor at Nanova, a Columbia company that makes material for dental products and dentures, which is where she met Elledge.
The couple's daughter was born in October 2018. Ji put a priority on her daughter, opting to be a stay-at-home mom until their daughter was old enough for school. Even so, she was the person financially supporting the family, through money from her parents and side jobs as a translator for Upwork, as Elledge had returned to the University of Missouri to study for an advanced engineering degree.
More: Investigation Discovery features late Prosecutor Dan Knight's reflections on Elledge trial
Following Elledge's official sentencing in January 2022, Ji's remains were returned to her family in China for a funeral.
Ji's family was grateful that the 28-year-sentence was upheld at that hearing, wrote family attorney Amy Salladay at the time.
"It's not enough when you consider the nightmare of waking up every day and realizing you can't talk to or see your daughter, but it is justice in terms of what the American court system provides, and for that they are thankful," she wrote.
Knight, following the trial, supposed the jury had returned the 28-year verdict because that was Ji's age was at the time of her death.
Charles Dunlap covers local government, community stories and other general subjects for the Tribune. You can reach him at cdunlap@columbiatribune.com or @CD_CDT on Twitter. Subscribe to support vital local journalism.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Joseph Elledge murder conviction appeal fails
