Ex-MIT student pleads guilty to murdering Yale grad student in 2021

Authorities said Qinxuan Pan has plead guilty to murder charges in connection to the death of a Yale graduate student in 2021.

The Office of the State's Attorney announced that Pan plead guilty to the murder of Kevin Jiang, 26, on Thursday.

On Feb. 6, 2021, Jiang was found lying outside of his car with multiple gunshot wounds on Lawrence Street in New Haven. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Jiang was a graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment and was set to graduate the year of his killing.

Prior to Pan's arrest, he was wanted for questioning and remained at large for months. He was eventually arrested in Alabama and was extradited to Connecticut.

Police said Pan visited car dealerships in Connecticut and Massachusetts before the shooting. Then a student at MIT, he was looking to purchase a small model SUV and even asked to test drive vehicles, according to police.

On the day of the shooting, Pan stole a car before driving to Connecticut, according to a police report.

The report filed by police in Mansfield, Mass., alleged Pan took a blue GMC Terrain for a test drive from a dealership on Feb. 6 and never returned it. Pan also allegedly put a commercial Connecticut license plate on the vehicle to conceal its identity.

Police did not say whether Pan and Jiang had an existing relationship. However, MIT confirmed that Pan had been enrolled as a graduate student at the university since 2014. Jiang's fiancée graduated from MIT in 2020.

If convicted, Pan faces up to 35 years in prison. He is expected to be sentenced on April 24.