Hired assassin pleads no contest to murdering Oakland woman at her boyfriend’s behest

OAKLAND — A Stockton man has agreed to serve a life sentence in prison for murdering a 60-year-old woman in a targeted killing allegedly orchestrated by the victim’s longtime significant other.

Hasheem Bason, 35, has pleaded no contest to second degree murder in the Aug. 21, 2022 shooting death of Lili Xu, an Oakland woman who was killed as she exited her Lexus on the 1000 block of 5th Avenue. Police concluded that Bason had been hired to murder Xu by Nelson Chia, Xu’s boyfriend of 10 years who died of suicide shortly after being booked into Santa Rita Jail on murder charges.

Bason remains in jail awaiting sentencing, which has been set for July 30, records show. The plea agreement says he will be given life with a chance for parole after 15 years. It remains to be seen whether the time Bason has already spent behind bars will count towards his sentence, or if the clock will start the moment he enters the state prison system.

Authorities said at the time that Bason and another unidentified cohort pulled up alongside Xu as she was exiting her car, and that Bason was identified as the gunman through a DNA test of an expended shell casing. Last January, Bason waived his right to a preliminary hearing where police would have described the investigation in detail.

After Xu’s death, Chia gave multiple media interviews in which he portrayed himself as devastated and confused by her death. But police say he hoped to gain $12-$14 million in life insurance and assets from Xu’s passing, and that they recovered “communications” between him and Bason in which they discuss the murder plot.

Adding to the evidence against Chia was this: Police reportedly showed him a picture of Bason on a photo lineup and asked if he recognized anyone. He denied anyone looked familiar, despite proof that he and Bason knew one another, according to Oakland police.

“Chia and Bason planned the day, time and place of the murder. Bason acquired a vehicle, recruited a driver, and waited to ambush Xu a block from the location of (her) appointment,” police said in court records at the time. “Chia drove Xu to the agreed upon location.”

Bason initially faced a sentence of life without parole when he was first charged. At the time of the murder, Chia was a well-known and respected dentist who practiced in Castro Valley and Oakland. It took police several weeks to identify him and Bason as suspects.