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A grandma accused of murdering her transgender New York Times executive son-in-law is throwing her husband under the bus in a bombshell bail filing, making shocking claims about her co-defendant in a bid for freedom.
Lawyers for Shili Chen, 77, claim her husband, Shouyong Zhang, was “fixated” on Jonathan McKinsey, the executive married to their daughter, Candice Jang, and was the one who fatally shot him in September.
Chen’s attorney, Curtis Briggs, writes that Chen did not fire the first shots at McKinsey when the couple allegedly gunned him down in the parking lot of Dublin Sports Grounds.
Briggs says Chen watched as her husband, 77-year-old Shouyong Zhang, fired the deadly shots at McKinsey before she got out of the car “to protect her husband from what she feared was an assault by Mr. McKinsey.”
Chen then “walked towards his body and fired several shots into his motionless body as her husband appeared to be doubled over with pain clutching his abdomen,” Briggs wrote.
The couple went to the park only at her husband’s direction, Briggs wrote, and only knew that Zhang instructed her to bring a gun “for the purported purposes of going to the shooting range.”
Briggs also presents evidence that Zhang was “consumed by the belief” McKinsey, whom he told police had a “dark soul,” would kill him. He became increasingly obsessed with him and believed the executive set up two instances in which he was hit by cars while riding his bike in the preceding months.
He thought McKinsey targeted him because he would have “freedom” without the grandfather present.
“I truly do believe the reason he wants to set me up and harm/kill me because without me, he will have full freedom,” Zhang told police, also admitting that he killed McKinsey to protect himself and his grandchildren from future harm.
Police executed a search warrant at the couple’s one-bedroom apartment and made a shocking finding that convinced them “Zhang had formed an intent to target McKinsey.”
In the couple’s bedroom, Briggs wrote, police found four photo albums, nitrile gloves, and an empty box for a Sig Sauer pistol. The gloves matched those found at the scene from Chen, while the photo albums held a chilling twist.
Several photos of McKinsey “had portions of his face cut out, and that one had black marks and dots drawn on his chest and over his right eye in places that appeared consistent with where he was later shot,” Briggs detailed.
It’s unclear who marked the photographs, but Briggs suggested a detective at the scene used them to form conclusions about Zhang’s motivations before the murder.
Chen’s defense team did note Zhang appeared to show “significant signs of advanced dementia” in the lead-up to the alleged murder.
Briggs says Chen should be released because of her poor health — which includes high blood pressure and blood sugar issues. He’s also particularly concerned about Santa Rita Jail she is held in. 5 people have reportedly died since the beginning of this year at the jail.
“For Ms. Chen, detention before trial may become a death sentence without a conviction,” Briggs wrote.
He added that Briggs would be a minimal flight risk because she does not have the means to flee, and he offered to have her under home detention with GPS monitoring. Briggs wanted Chen to take residence with her daughter, Candice Jang, who was going through a contentious divorce and custody proceedings with McKinsey before the murder.
He also argued against the lying-in-wait special circumstance, saying if the prosecution argued Chen is the actual killer, it would “be a strain on the facts” because Zhang “fired so many shots into Mr. McKinsey’s chest and head before Ms. Chen arrived.”
Chen’s bail hearing is set for Nov. 4.
