Suspect pleads guilty in Yale University graduate student's 2021 murder
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Sentencing is set for April 25 in the shocking murder of a Yale University graduate student in 2021.
Qinxuan Pan, 32, pleaded guilty Thursday and faces 35 years.
Three years ago, police said he ambushed, shot and killed Yale grad student Kevin Jiang a few blocks away from the New Haven campus.
Pan fled Connecticut and was captured 97 days later in Alabama.
Shocking crime of jealousy
Jiang was a graduate student at Yale's School of Environment and an active member of New Haven's Trinity Baptist Church.
The 26-year-old had gotten engaged days before the shooting, and investigators believe his killing was motivated by romantic jealousy.
He was shot multiple times outside his car after being rear-ended by the suspect.
Jiang's fiancée, Zion Perry, and his mother spoke at his funeral, talking about his faith and expressing their love.
"Kevin would want us to cherish the gift of life we still have on earth and share the good news of eternal life in Christ Jesus," Perry said.
"Kevin is the most wonderful gift God has ever given me on earth. I look forward to being reunited with Kevin in heaven," said his mother through a translator.
Investigators said Pan and Perry had both attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were acquainted with one another.
MTI confirmed Pan received undergraduate degrees from the school in June 2014 and enrolled as a graduate student in September of that year. Perry graduated from the school in 2020.
