California engineer caught on camera poisoning female co-worker with cadmium now seeks to wipe his record clean

Rong Yuan spent two years suffering from vomiting, hair loss and repeated hospital stays before surveillance footage caught her colleague David Xu pouring toxic cadmium into her water bottle. Despite that evidence, Xu received only two years' probation and is now petitioning a court to expunge his record. Yuan made the footage public this weekend, ahead of Xu's Monday appearance at Alameda County Superior Court to seek formal dismissal of his felony poisoning conviction. The 41-year-old metallurgist had originally faced attempted murder charges carrying a potential life sentence, but prosecutors dropped them under a plea agreement. Yuan says she continues to suffer health problems and is troubled by the prospect of the legal system erasing what Xu did to her.

While secretly lacing Yuan's food and water with cadmium, Xu presented himself as a concerned colleague — emailing her to 'work from home' and suggesting that office mould might explain her symptoms.

'I almost died. I experienced death so, so close, so many times,' Yuan said as Xu pursued a conviction dismissal that would clear his record for future employment background checks.