Four sentenced to prison for joining fatal street brawl

A district court sentenced four men to prison Thursday for their role in a large brawl that left one man dead last October.

Three of the defendants, Yang Wenliang, 19, Hu Xiaoyi, 31, and Liu Boyu, 20, were charged in Jing'an District People's Court with brawling. Judge Xiao Weiqi sentenced Yang and Hu to one year in prison and Liu to nine months. A fourth defendant, Cai Hefan, 19, was charged with incitement and was sentenced to seven months behind bars.

The fight broke out in the early morning hours of October 3, when Cai, an employee at the bar CD1, saw his ex-girlfriend dancing with another man, according to the indictment.

An angry Cai asked two friends to attack the man, Pan Yeqing, near a convenience store opposite the bar on Jiangning Road. During the fight, a female friend of Cai's named Song Sun arrived and got into a scuffle with his ex-girlfriend, Qiao Jiaqian, when she tried to stop the fight. The fight calmed down at one point, with Pan and Qiao suffering minor injuries.

However, it wasn't long before Song called up a friend, Lü Yun, for help. Lü called up Yang and several other friends and asked them to come to the intersection of Jiangning and Xinzha roads, where the fight had taken place.

Meanwhile, Qiao called one of her friends, Hou Shichao, who asked the defendant Hu to come to the scene.

A third defendant, Liu, only showed up because he had plans to meet Yang, but ended up getting drawn into the brawl.

During the fight, Hou stabbed one of Lü's friends, Cai Yilei, in the chest with a knife, killing him.

Yang testified in court that he asked a friend to call the police before leaving the scene.

Police arrested Yang and Hu later that day, according to the indictment. Liu and Cai Hefan gave themselves up the same day. Hou's mother, Niu Yanqin, bought her son a train ticket so he could flee the city after she found out he killed someone. He was later caught.

The courted charged Niu with harboring a criminal suspect and sentenced her to one year of probation.

Several others involved in the brawl have been charged with more serious crimes. They will be tried later in separate cases.