Former Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Qinxuan Pan has been sentenced to 35 years in prison for the 2021 murder of Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang.
Pan, 33, pleaded guilty in February to the murder of Jiang, 26, who was enrolled at the Yale School of the Environment and set finish his master’s in environmental science in 2021.
Pan received the maximum sentence and will not be eligible for parole or probation as part of the plea agreement.
Jiang was found shot multiple times outside his car near the school’s campus in New Haven, Conn. on Feb. 6, 2021. The shooting was initially investigated as a “road rage incident” before Pan, a MIT artificial intelligence researcher, was named a person of interest and was charged three weeks later.
According to investigators, Pan had test driven small SUVs in multiple states. Before the cold-blooded attack he stole a blue GMC Terrain from a dealership in Mansfield, Mass. before driving to Connecticut, concealing the car’s identity with commercial license plates.
While he was fleeing New Haven, police officers helped him get the car off some railroad tracks, but let him go because the wrong description of the shooting suspect was sent out at the onset of the investigation.
Officials said Pan had been a graduate student at MIT since 2014 and Jiang’s fiancée — Zion Perry — graduated from MIT in 2020. Police said Pan knew Perry but the two lost touch after she graduated. It hasn’t been publicly disclosed whether Pan knew Jiang before the slaying.
After three months on the run and a nationwide search by investigators, Pan was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Alabama where he was living under an alias. He was extradited back to Connecticut soon after.
“I feel sorry for what my actions caused and for everyone affected,” Pan said at his sentencing. “I fully accept my penalties.”
The court also issued protective orders against Pan for three unnamed people that are in effect for 60 years.
“I can’t say this brings the family justice. I hope it does,” New Haven Police Chief Karl Jacobson previously told the Yale Daily News. “I think a 35-year sentence is a large sentence … I hope this brings the family justice.”
