A Chinese student studying at a U.S. university is facing further charges of sexual assault and animal cruelty after previously being accused of domestic violence.
Zhang Jia'en, a 21-year-old student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was charged Thursday with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, six counts of criminal sexual assault, one count of unlawful use of a credit card, one count of theft, one count of animal torture and one count of aggravated cruel treatment of an animal, the local News Gazette reported on October 13.
Zhang is now being held in Champaign County Jail on a $500,000 bond and is awaiting his court date on October 28, said the News Gazette.
He was arrested on August 23 for multiple domestic violence incidents between March and May and detained again on Wednesday for sexual assault and animal torture, according to the local police.
The police also said that Zhang's female victim was locked in his dorm room overnight and allegedly sexually assaulted on May 6, 2015. The woman reported experiencing pain for three days after the incident.
Zhang went to Bishop Blanchet High School in Seattle after he finished his first year of high school in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the Chengdu Business Daily reported Wednesday.
"He was clever and quite small back then and didn't seem like he would commit crimes", one of Zhang's high school teachers recalled.
Zhang began studying in UIUC in 2014, according to the News Gazette.
In 2014, 29-year-old Ci Yongfei, a graduate student at the University of Illinois and native of North China's Hebei Province, pled guilty to fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in her apartment and was sentenced to 46 years in prison, said the News Gazette.
