Poisoning Victim Releases 2019 Video as David Xu Seeks Felony Dismissal

Q: Why did a Berkeley engineer secretly feed his coworker highly toxic heavy metals for over a year?

There is no publicly established answer for why David Xu allegedly poisoned Rong Yuan; investigators and court records described what happened, but no clear motive has been confirmed in the reporting. The available evidence points to a workplace relationship that Yuan said was tense from the start. Both were highly trained metallurgists linked to the same UC Berkeley academic world, and Xu was the firm’s sole materials-characterization expert when Yuan joined Berkeley Engineering and Research in 2017. Yuan has said their first encounter was confrontational, with Xu telling her she was not allowed to use the lab. That has fueled speculation about professional jealousy, territoriality, or resentment, but those remain inferences, not proven facts. What is established is that prosecutors said Xu contaminated Yuan’s food and water with cadmium over more than a year, from 2017 to 2019. Yuan reported severe symptoms including vomiting, hair loss, repeated ER visits, and a feeling that she was dying. Hidden-camera footage she set up at her desk in 2019 reportedly showed Xu near her bottle and appearing to pour something into it. Testing later found cadmium in the bottle at extremely high levels. Xu ultimately pleaded no contest to one felony poisoning charge as part of a plea deal; the attempted-murder charge was dropped. Because the case ended in a plea rather than a trial on all charges, the public record appears to explain the act far more clearly than the motive.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 12

Rong Yuan released hidden-camera footage showing former coworker David Xu reaching for her desk and appearing to pour a substance into her water bottle before his Monday bid to dismiss his felony conviction.
Xu, 34, was accused of poisoning Yuan with cadmium in food and water from 2017 to 2019; he ultimately pleaded no contest to one poisoning count under a deal that dropped attempted-murder exposure.
California law generally requires judges to grant dismissal requests if probation terms were met, even though Alameda County prosecutors opposed Xu's petition; he completed probation in March after a judge extended it to two years.
Yuan said the video was a "last resort" after years of illness including vomiting and hair loss, and after her mother noticed a sour taste in the bottle that prompted the 2019 camera setup.
Even if the conviction is dismissed, the case would still remain on Xu's record, underscoring Yuan's broader complaint that the legal system treated the poisoning too leniently.