Ex-girlfriend: Christensen studied serial killers

The ex-girlfriend of the man accused of murdering visiting scholar Zhang Yingying testified Wednesday that he asked her to read the 1991 novel American Psycho about a serial killer.

Terra Bullis was testifying in the capital murder trial of Brendt Christensen in US District Court in Peoria, Illinois.

Earlier Wednesday, an FBI biologist testified that DNA and bloodstains found in Christensen's apartment and car were a match to Zhang.

A lawyer for the defendant already has said in court that his client killed Zhang, a graduate student from China who was attending the University of Illinois (UI). The defense took the unusual approach last week in an effort to spare Christensen, himself a former graduate student at the university, a federal death penalty.

Bullis said Christensen ordered her to read the novel by Bret Easton Ellis about a Wall Street investment banker who becomes a serial killer, after she had watched the movie version, according to news website The News-Gazette of Champaign, Illinois.

The witness said she recalled Christensen saying the main character was an attractive, intelligent man. She said he talked about serial killers in the context of people who are remembered in history, and mentioned Ted Bundy, a notorious serial killer who confessed to killing at least 30 young women and girls in the 1970s across seven states before he was executed by the state of Florida in 1989.

Bullis agreed to wear a wire for the FBI on June 16, 2017, a week after Zhang was last seen alive, after getting into a car in Urbana that later was identified as Christensen's.

The FBI furnished her with two recording devices — one in a coffee mug, and a small device about the size of a Post-It note, she testified, according to The News-Gazette.

On June 17, when Christensen told her that he used a large duffel bag to transport a large present, his story didn't make sense, she said.

The same day, Christensen told Bullis that authorities found blood on a baseball bat belonging to him.

On June 23, he texted Bullis that "I was the one who picked that girl up. I dropped her off shortly after. I didn't do anything wrong."

Bullis said Wednesday that she felt conflicted.

"When I care about someone, I truly care about them," she said. "But I also cared about this missing person."

Bullis is to continue her testimony Thursday.

The FBI biologist, Amanda Bakker, compared samples collected to Zhang's DNA found on her toothbrush.

DNA discovered on one swab had a likelihood factor of 1 in 44 sextillion that it came from a random person and not Zhang.

DNA matches also were found on two other mattresses, bloodstained carpet and drywall behind a bed.

According to Assistant US Attorney Eugene Miller, federal prosecutors are expected to call their final witnesses in the trial and rest their case on Thursday.

The defense attorneys could conclude witness testimony and cross-examination as early as Thursday, when they will call at least two witnesses to testify, The News-Gazette reported.

The closing arguments and jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday. If the verdict is guilty, the jury will later convene about whether to impose the death penalty or life in prison.

The trial is the first capital murder case in Illinois since the state's death penalty ban took effect in 2011. Because Christensen is being tried in federal court, a capital murder charge can result in the death penalty.

On Tuesday, UI graduate student Emily Hogan testified about her encounter with the accused in the morning of the day that Zhang was last seen.

She testified that Christensen was trying to get her into his car by posing as an undercover police officer, saying she felt physically ill when she recognized him days later in a police photo display, according to The News-Gazette.

"I'm an undercover cop. Could I ask you some questions?" Hogan said Christensen told her as he approached her in a black car.

Assistant federal defender George Taseff stressed that Hogan was uncertain when picking Christensen out of a photo display and asked her multiple times if she was certain that the man who approached her was cleanshaven.

Hogan said she wasn't certain on Tuesday, but at the time she was certain that he was cleanshaven.