Malicious wounding charges lodged against New Kent man certified to a grand jury

Sheng Jie Jin

With the help of interpreters, attorneys for both sides as well as the judge overcame not one, but two language barriers during a preliminary hearing for Sheng Jie Jin, a New Kent County restaurateur accused of attacking two family members.

The defendant and alleged victims are Chinese and appeared to understand little if any English while a key prosecution witness, who is Hispanic, needed assistance from a Spanish interpreter.

Testimony, at times, seemed almost lost in translation as Wednesday’s hearing wore on. Attorneys frequently encountered difficulty explaining questions to witnesses on the stand, but in the end, New Kent Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Wade A. Bowie had no problem certifying two felony charges lodged against Jin to a New Kent Circuit Court grand jury.

Jin is charged with one count of aggravated malicious wounding in connection with an alleged attack on his estranged wife, Yue Yun Zheng. He also faces one count of malicious wounding, reduced earlier from the more serious aggravated charge, stemming from an alleged attack on his wife’s brother, Xue Ying Gao. During Wednesday’s proceedings, a felony destruction of property (in excess of $1,000 damage) charge lodged against Jin was dropped.

Gao, the prosecution’s key witness, fought back tears as he recounted through an interpreter what transpired the night of Jan. 20 in the parking lot behind Panda Garden, a Chinese restaurant located in the New Kent Crossing shopping center on Route 249 in Quinton and owned by Jin and his estranged wife. When describing his sister’s injuries, Gao’s voice became elevated amid sobs while he gestured toward his brother-in-law seated at the defense table.

First, he said, he witnessed the couple arguing inside the restaurant over marital issues. Then after Jin allegedly threatened the wife with a knife, she sought to escape through the back door, but Jin followed, he added.

Jin hopped into a SUV parked out back, Gao told the court, using the vehicle to strike the wife. Gao also sustained injury.

“[Jin] drove the car and continued to try to hit her,” Gao said through an interpreter. “Then he picked up a hammer and began beating her with the hammer. Fortunately she was not killed.”

Under questioning from commonwealth’s attorney Linwood Gregory, Gao said the defendant used the hammer to strike the wife several times about the head.

“I tried to rescue her,” Gao said. “I held him down, and a few people from the restaurant next door came over to help.”

At some point during the altercation outside, the SUV with Jin behind the wheel knocked over four large liquid propane cylinders and ripped the rear door to Maria’s Pizza and Italian Restaurant off its hinges.
That commotion attracted Maria’s employees, who are Hispanic.

Maria’s worker Santos Antonio Flores backed up Gao’s testimony. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, he told the court that Jin struck the wife with the hammer while Gao, lying injured on the pavement, grabbed the defendant’s leg in an attempt to end the attack.

“The brother asked for my help so I jumped on [Jin],” Flores said, adding that he wrestled the hammer away from the defendant and handed the tool to another employee.

“I was afraid I’d get hit with the hammer,” Flores said. “I climbed on top of [Jin] to hold him until the police came.”

New Kent sheriff’s Sgt. Brandon Jenkins was among the first officers to arrive at the scene, encountering the language barrier amid mass confusion.

“It was very chaotic,” he told the court. “People everywhere were waving at me, and there was a lot of screaming and yelling.”

Several people had restrained Jin, pinning the defendant on the toppled door, Jenkins said.

“Mr. Gao was rolling around in pain, and the sister was lying on the floor [inside Maria’s] with blood on the floor,” he said.

According to a police report, deputies resorted to a “language line” that supplies interpreters. Deputies then were able to gain control of the situation and begin the interview process.

In addition to head wounds, the wife sustained a broken ankle. Photos of her injuries showed layers of skin torn away above the ankle break. She has since undergone skin grafts. Gao said he suffered a broken arm and spent close to two weeks in a hospital.

The wife remained hospitalized more than a month, her brother said. She did not attend Wednesday’s hearing due to undergoing additional surgery that same day.

Certified charges now head to a circuit court grand jury scheduled to convene on May 18. Jin, meanwhile, remains held in jail.