REDWOOD CITY – The San Mateo County District Attorneys Office on Monday said it is revoking the plea agreement it struck with Olivier Adella in exchange for his testimony in the long-awaited murder trial of Hillsborough heiress Tiffany Li and her boyfriend Kaveh Bayat.
The decision not to present testimony from Adella or call him to the stand follows the revelation last week that he had contacted a witness for the defense.
“Now it becomes a completely circumstantial case,” said District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe.
What happens next will hinge on the “numerous motions” defense attorneys plan to file in light of the decision, according to Wagstaffe. The motions are due by 4 p.m. Tuesday and Judge Robert Foiles is expected to make a ruling on them at a hearing Thursday.
Foiles, meanwhile, sent the jury home for the rest of the week and pushed the start of the trial back to Sept. 23.
Charges are pending against Adella, who is being held without bail. Adella, along with Li and Bayat, was initially charged with the murder of 27-year-old Keith Green, but Wagstaffe said it would not be possible at this point to add him as a third codefendant in the trial.
Prosecutors allege that Li had Bayat kill Green on the night of April 28, 2016, because she feared she would lose a custody battle over the two children she had with Green.
Attorneys for 33-year-old Li and 32-year-old Bayat say their clients had nothing to do with Greens murder.
Adella had reached a plea deal to testify against his former co-defendants in exchange for a reduced charge. He was released from jail last fall after pleading no contest to the lesser charge of being an accessory to murder.
Defense attorneys have characterized Adella as an unreliable witness who cut a deal to get out of jail. In one court filing, they suggested that Adella may have been the one who killed Green.
The witness Adella was accused of contacting was his ex-girlfriend, a woman that defense attorneys allege he physically abused. Lis attorney, Geoffrey Carr, said the woman had not heard from Adella in years, but he messaged her saying that he knew she was working with the defense.
Prosecutors said the messages – sent via Instagram – violated an order from Foiles prohibiting witnesses from discussing the case or contacting other witnesses. They also violated the terms of Adellas release from jail, which barred him from using social media.
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