Li worked for New York City-based biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prosecutors introduced evidence during the trial that she ordered thallium, a tasteless, odorless poison, through work in 2010 after researching its effects on humans.
Thallium has been banned for consumer use in the U.S. since 1972. It can be fatal in doses as small as a gram and has been called the perfect poison because it's difficult to detect in lab tests. It was initially suspected to be the toxin used in the 2006 fatal poisoning in London of former Russian KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, but it was later determined he had ingested the rare radioactive isotope polonium-210.
Wang, 39, checked into a hospital in January 2011 suffering from what appeared to be the flu or some other virus. He lapsed into a coma and died.
Li was at her husband's side in the hospital, even changing his bedpan, Altman pointed out to the judge.
Prosecutor Christie Bevacqua told the judge Li was "secretly keeping a journal of all his symptoms, wondering when he was going to die."
"She calculated every aspect of her husband's murder; not only how to do it, but how to get away with it. She thought she was going to get away with this murder," Bevacqua said. "She chose to murder her husband rather than allow him to divorce her."
Li, who is from Beijing, came to the U.S. in the late 1990s and worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb for about 10 years. She met Wang when they were studying at the University of Pennsylvania. The couple lived in Monroe, in central New Jersey, and prosecutors said at the time of Li's arrest in February 2011 that police had been called to the residence several times for domestic disturbances.
Altman said in court Monday that some of the disputes arose from culture clashes between the Americanized Li and her husband's more traditional family, who had come to help the couple care for their son.
