THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406300524
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOE JACKSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: NORFOLK
Weiping Xia, a 34-year-old Ph.D. candidate in oceanography from mainland China, has been charged with two counts of misdemeanor assault in Norfolk and Portsmouth. When he was arrested June 10, he was carrying in his pants pocket a small vial of barium-133, a mildly radioactive liquid used to test whether instruments are responding accurately to gamma radiation.
{REST} On Wednesday, Xia was found guilty of assault in Norfolk Juvenile and Domestic Relations court and given a suspended sentence provided he have no contact with the girlfriend or her family for two years. His hearing in Portsmouth is scheduled for July 5.
Xia's tale is a classic one of domestic breakup and jealousy, with a nuclear twist, authorities said. When Xia learned that his 23-year-old girlfriend, also a Chinese student at ODU, wanted to break up with him, he threatened her and her friends, said the frightened woman, who asked that her name not be used.
``It was the same old tale,'' said Troy Spencer, the woman's lawyer. ``If he couldn't have her, nobody else would either. But this guy had access to radioactive materials and he threatened to use it. If he could get this, what else could he get his hands on?''
Xia also told his girlfriend that he had a key to the chemistry lab, that he had taken other unidentified radioactive materials and had laced the houses of two friends with the chemical. Yet when members of the Norfolk Hazardous Material Team checked the houses after Xia's arrest, they found no trace of the chemicals, officials said.
``When it looked like he might be facing some jail time, he admitted it was a lie,'' said Ron Wakeham, director of the Norfolk Division of Fire and Paramedical Services. ``We're convinced there was no danger to the public.''
State and local officials said this was the first such incident of threat-by-stolen-nuclear-material they can recall in Virginia. There was only a small amount of barium found in the vial, and at those levels the danger was minimal. In larger concentrations, however, the liquid could be more dangerous, officials said.
Xia graduated in May with a master's degree in oceanography, but apparently kept a key to the lab, where he worked as a graduate assistant. University officials have changed the locks, ODU spokeswoman Beth Cooper said. University officials said that inventories of radioactive materials in the labs are taken about twice a year, but would not say whether anything highly radioactive is kept at the university.
Interviews with the victim, her lawyer and law enforcement officials show that the incident escalated to the point that the woman went into hiding to escape her former boyfriend.
The two met at ODU. As their relationship grew, Xia became more possessive, the woman said in an interview. He told her he had access to radioactive materials ``that were very harmful,'' she said. University officials said he was qualified by the state to handle certain chemicals.
When Xia got a job with a chemical firm in California instead of earning his doctorate, he asked his girlfriend to move there with him, she said. When she said no, the threats began.
On June 3, Xia returned from California, ostensibly to collect his luggage. But that night, from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m., he would not let her out of her apartment. When she tried to leave, he shoved her away or slapped her; when her friends and family called, he answered the phone.
``It was then he reminded me he could get the stuff in his lab,'' she said. ``He said he would use it, would spill it on me. He talked about exposing my friend to it if I didn't go with him. It would have a slow effect. I was scared. Very scared.''
So the woman ran, hiding at the homes of friends. Xia rented a car and staked out places he knew she might frequent. Sometime during the week he found her and began stalking her, she said. Then, on June 10, he confronted her at a take-out restaurant on Portsmouth Boulevard in Portsmouth.
``He was screaming at me, pointing his finger at my face, talking dirty language to me,'' she said. ``He said, `You don't want to talk to me now, but you are going to be begging me soon.' . . . Then he went out and sat in his car. He wouldn't go away. I was scared to go outside.''
Some restaurant customers pointed out a man who was an off-duty state trooper, so ``I went up to him and told him what happened,'' she said.
The trooper walked into the parking lot and confronted Xia. When Xia got out of the car, he reached into his pocket. The trooper grabbed Xia's arm and pulled it up. In Xia's hand was a bottle with the label ``Ba-133'' and a red radioactivity symbol taped to the glass. The trooper also found a hammer and a pair of plastic gloves in the rental car, Spencer said.
Xia told officials that he had found the bottle in his office and had slipped it in his pocket, meaning to return it to the lab. But he forgot about it and carried it off university grounds, he told police.
``In small quantities, he probably could keep the stuff on him a long time and have no effects,'' said Anthony Pulcrano, assistant director of the state Bureau of Radiological Health. ``In larger quantities, though, it could be dangerous. Too much of anything can be bad for you.''
In the end, Xia's conviction for misdemeanor assault will not affect his visa, said Tom Socher of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The conviction would have to be for a felony assault or an assault with a weapon for a revocation. And since the barium was not counted as a weapon in the charge, it was not figured into the decision, Socher said.
{KEYWORDS} STALKING ASSAULT
by CNB