Qinxuan Pan, a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher aged 33, was sentenced on Tuesday to 35 years in prison for the murder of Kevin Jiang, a graduate student from Yale University. Jiang, 26, was found shot outside his car on a street in Connecticut.
Pan, who admitted guilt to the murder in February, expressed regret during the hearing in a New Haven courtroom. He addressed Jiang's family and friends saying, "I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected. I fully accept my penalties."
Jiang, an Army veteran and graduate student at Yale's School of the Environment, was leaving his fiancée's apartment in New Haven on the evening of February 6, 2021, when he was shot multiple times by Pan. The couple had recently become engaged.
Before the sentencing, relatives and friends of Jiang spoke in court. Jiang's father, Mingchen Jiang, described his son as a "remarkable young man who cherished life and held deep belief in God."
The motive behind the killing remained unclear. Investigators revealed that Pan and Jiang's fiancée had connections on social media and had met at MIT, where they both studied. Pan worked as a researcher at MIT at the time of the shooting.
Pan fled the scene after the shooting and evaded authorities for three months before being captured in Alabama. He was found with a fake identity, $19,000 in cash, a passport, and multiple cellphones.
