Former MIT researcher sentenced to prison in murder of Yale graduate student
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher has been sentenced in the 2021 murder of a Yale graduate student.
Thirty-three-year-old Qinxuan Pan pleaded guilty in February to murdering 26-year-old Kevin Jiang.
Pan was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison. During the hearing, he apologized and took responsibility for his actions.
"I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected," Pan said. "I fully accept my penalties."
Yale grad student Kevin Jiang fatally shot
Police say on the evening of Feb. 6, 2021, Jiang was shot multiple times in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, near the Yale campus, after leaving his fiancée's apartment. He was found dead near his car, which had rear-end damage.
Jiang was a Chicago native, an Army veteran and had gotten engaged just days before he was killed.
Police determined the shooting was not random and soon named Pan, who was a graduate student at MIT at the time, as a person of interest.
Pan was eventually arrested in Alabama in May 2021 after a nationwide manhunt.
A motive was never made clear, but investigators were at one time looking into whether romantic jealously led to the deadly shooting. Jiang's fiancée had also attended MIT and was acquainted with Pan.
According to documents, Jiang's fiancée told authorities she and Pan "never had a romantic or sexual relationship, they were just friends, but she did get a feeling that he was interested in her during that time."