Man pleads guilty in Kiko murder

Kiko Jiayi Li. Photo / Supplied

One of two men charged with the murder of Chinese student Jiayi Li, known as Kiko and whose body was found in the boot of her car, has changed his plea to guilty.

Yongxin Li, 18, initially pleaded not guilty to the murder and to aggravated robbery for attempting to use her eftpos card but changed his pleas in an unscheduled court appearance on March 8. He will be sentenced in the High Court at Auckland on May 27.

His alleged accomplice, Honglin Yu, 20, has denied the charges and is due to stand trial in the High Court at Auckland on September 26.

Another man, Junzhou Xhang, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact and will stand trial alongside Yu.

Ms Li's body was found in the boot of her car in Hamilton on June 2 last year. She had been stabbed to death.

Police said she may have been killed within a day or two of her disappearance on May 19.

Li and Yu were arrested shortly after police found surveillance footage of two men making four attempts to use Ms Li's bank card.

Li had a one-way ticket to China booked for the next day.

They were initially only charged with using a document so police had to act quickly so they could lay further charges, otherwise they would probably have been granted bail and chances of gathering further evidence would have been diminished, Senior Sergeant John Sutton, of Avondale CIB, said.

Police contacted TV3's Nightline that night and asked them to include information about the car on their programme and, within 10 minutes of it airing, someone contacted police with the whereabouts of the car and Ms Lee's body was found, Mr Sutton said.

Ms Li was doing a business course in Auckland.

- NZPA