The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Law firm no longer represents Pan in homicide
NEW HAVEN — More than two years after Yale graduate student Kevin Jiang was killed, the man suspected of firing the fatal shots is changing lawyers.
In state Superior Court in New Haven Monday morning, Superior Court Judge Gerald L. Harmon released attorney Kevin Smith, of Pattis & Smith Law Firm, from representing Qinxuan Pan. The reason for the change in legal representation was not discussed during the brief hearing, but Harmon confirmed that Pan qualified for a public defender.
Public defender Sanford Bruce is now representing the Massachusetts man. Pan is next scheduled to appear in court on April 27.
The change comes just four months after Pan, 31, pleaded not guilty to his murder and second-degree larceny charges in connection with Jiang’s death in February 2021. Before the plea, the case had numerous delays, including a competency hearing that found Pan could stand trial.
Norm Pattis, of Pattis &
Smith, requested the competency hearing in September when Pan was supposed to have his probable cause hearing that later took place in December. In the September hearing, Pattis said his efforts to discuss certain aspects of the case with Pan were fruitless at the time.
Smith was not immediately available to comment Monday after the hearing.
Pan is accused of shooting Jiang, 26, in the face multiple times on Lawrence Street in New Haven’s East Rock neighborhood on Feb. 6, 2021. Jiang, who was working toward his master’s degree in environmental science at Yale University had just left his fiancée’s apartment before the shooting.
According to his arrest warrant, Pan stole a GMC Terrain, changed his cellphone number and drove to Connecticut that same day. After the shooting, North Haven police stopped Pan as he was stuck on railroad tracks, but officers let him go since they received a different description of the shooting suspect.
Officers later searched the vehicle for evidence and found a reddishbrown stain on the gear shifter, the warrant said.
This stain was found to be “100 billion times more likely” to have originated from Jiang and an unknown party than two unknown parties, according to the arrest warrant.
After a months-long manhunt, Pan was apprehended in Alabama in May 2021.