Thomas Breen photos
Qinxuan Pan (right) with defense attorney William Gerace in court Tuesday.
Gerace meets with Pan’s parents, Hao Pan and Hong Huang, after the hearing.
Qinxuan Pan’s parents drove down from Massachusetts Tuesday to quietly show support for their incarcerated son, who appeared in court in person for the first time to face charges that he allegedly murdered Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang.
“It is sorry this happened,” Pan’s mom, Hong Huang, said after the brief procedural hearing.
When asked how she and her husband, Hao Pan, felt to watch their son appear in court in the ongoing murder case, Huang said, “Sad. Only one word. Sad.”
Pan’s parents offered that take in the hallway outside of a fourth-floor courtroom at the state courthouse at 235 Church St.
For little more than five minutes, their son, Qinxuan Pan, appeared — handcuffed and in an orange jumpsuit — alongside his defense attorney, William Gerace, before state Superior Court Judge Gerald Harmon.
Judge Harmon.
Tuesday’s hearing saw no substantive discussion of the case, in which state prosecutors have charged Pan with one count of felony murder for allegedly shooting and killing Jiang on Feb. 6 by Jiang’s fiancee’s apartment on Lawrence Street in New Haven’s Goatville neighborhood.
All that took place Tuesday was the judge granted Gerace’s request that his client receive a pair of eyeglasses from the state Department of Correction.
“He has not gotten them back” since his glasses were confiscated when he was first incarcerated nearly two weeks ago, Gerace said. “He cannot read without them.”
Judge Harmon also granted Gerace’s request that Pan be able to communicate with his attorney by phone while he remains locked up at the Whalley Avenue jail. “He has not been given access to a telephone yet,” Gerace said.
In addition to granting both of those requests, Judge Harmon also set the next hearing date in the case for July 13.
That’s when Gerace plans to make his pitch to the judge to reduce Pan’s $20 million bail.
After the hearing, Gerace said he’d like to see a bail amount set at closer to $1 million.
“The bond that’s set now is tantamount to no bond at all,” the defense attorney told a gaggle of reporters on the Church Street courthouse steps. “It’s like saying we don’t have bail in Connecticut.”
Before and after the hearing, Gerace huddled for a few minutes with Pan’s parents (pictured above leaving court).
Dressed in muted shades of blue, face masks around their mouths, their black hair speckled with white, both parents sat in the back row of the courtroom during their son’s brief hearing before the judge.
They didn’t make any noise or appear to make eye contact when Pan was ushered into the room in handcuffs by a court marshal, or when Pan was taken away five minutes later.
After the hearing, Huang told this reporter in a somber voice just how sad the whole situation was. She said that Pan is their only son, and that they drove down from Massachusetts for Tuesday’s hearing.
“The parents. They’re both devastated,” Gerace told reporters on the courthouse steps.
The mere presence of Huang and Pan at court on Tuesday appeared to confirm what Gerace told reporters on May 20 before Pan’s arraignment: That, despite the serious charges and sensational nationwide manhunt, Pan’s parents are still supporting their 30-year-old child.
Parental Support On Lam Alleged
During the arraignment hearing, state prosecutor Stacey Miranda (pictured) alleged that his parents played a key role in Pan’s months-long flight from law enforcement.
Miranda said then that law enforcement caught up with Pan on May 14 in Montgomery, Alabama, where he allegedly was renting an apartment under a fake name, had $19,000 in cash, seven cellphones, several SIM cards, a laptop, and his father’s Chinese passport in his possession. Miranda also said during that arraignment hearing that Pan’s parents are wealthy, that they own two homes in Massachusetts, and that the family “has ties” to Shanghai, where Pan was born. Pan is a U.S. citizen, having come to the United States in 2007 to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After the hearing, Pan’s parents waved off reporters and declined any further interviews. After parting from their son’s lawyer, they walked hand in hand down Wall Street towards Orange Street.