Thomas Breen photo
Pan (right) and defense attorney Kevin Smith in court Thursday.
Over a year after Qinxuan Pan allegedly murdered Yale grad student Kevin Jiang, his criminal court case has been pushed out another month to give the incarcerated MIT artificial intelligence researcher more time to review state-gathered evidence against him.
That was the outcome of Thursday’s latest hearing in Pan’s ongoing criminal case.
State prosecutors charged Pan with one felony count of murder for allegedly shooting and killing 26-year-old Yale grad student Kevin Jiang near Jiang’s fiancee’s apartment on Lawrence Street in East Rock on Feb. 6, 2021.
After a brief procedural hearing in a sixth-floor courtroom at the state courthouse at 235 Church St. Thursday, state Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon continued Pan’s case to April 5.
Harmon continued the case until early April because “the state [is] providing additional discovery to you” and your client, he said to Smith as Pan stood handcuffed and in a yellow jumpsuit beside him.
That’s right, Smith said. “The state is going to provide us with redacted discovery within a month’s timeframe.”
State prosecutor Stacey Miranda noted that her office has already provided discovery to Pan. The problem is that he’s had trouble accessing that material in the prison library. “I will provide additional discovery with a redacted copy” that hopefully Pan will be able to read and discuss with his lawyers soon.
Pan is currently incarcerated at Cheshire Correctional Institution on a $20 million bond. U.S. Marshals arrested him on May 14, 2021 in Montgomery, Alabama, after a months-long, nationwide manhunt, and then extradited him to New Haven.