Haiyang Zhu

The murder trial of a former Virginia Tech doctoral student accused of beheading a fellow student has been postponed until 2010. The 26-year-old defendant, Haiyang Zhu (hy-yuhng-joo), was scheduled to stand trial in November in Montgomery County Circuit Court. At a hearing Tuesday, attorney Stephanie Cox requested the continuance to prepare for her client's defense. Zhu's trial was set for Feb. 1. Zhu is charged with slaying fellow Chinese student Xin Yang (shin yuhng) in January 2009. The 22-year-old woman was beheaded in her dormitory cafe where she met Zhu for coffee Jan. 21. The killing was the first at the Blacksburg school since ... Read Full Story

A prosecutor says doctors at a state mental hospital have found a doctoral student competent to stand trial on a charge of killing a fellow student at a Virginia Tech coffee shop. Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch said Thursday a preliminary hearing has been scheduled May 29 for Haiyang Zhu (hy-yuhng-joo) on a first-degree murder charge. It had been delayed while Zhu's mental evaluation was conducted at Central State Hospital. Zhu is charged in the death of 22-year-old Xin Yang (shin yuhng), who was beheaded in her dormitory cafe where she met Zhu for coffee Jan. 21. Finch would not give details of ... Read Full Story

Xin Yang and Haiyang Zhu Haiyang Zhu--the Chinese grad student at Virginia Tech allegedly responsible for decapitating new friend Xin Yang with a kitchen knife on Wednesday--apparently showed signs of frustration unrelated to the incident earlier this month. AP reports : [A] Chinese-language blog was written earlier this month under the name Haiyang Zhu, and displaying the same photo of Zhu by authorities in Virginia. The author expressed frustration over stock losses and other problems in the blog, dated Jan. 7. 'Big stock losses. Recently I've been so frustrated I think only of killing someone or committing suicide,' the posting reads. We are numb ... Read Full Story

Virginia Tech's president is telling the campus that he regrets some comments he's received about the ethnicity of the man charged in the death of a fellow student last month. Charles Steger sent an open letter to the campus Wednesday affirming that the school is what he called an open and accepting community. He says there's no evidence that the decapitation of 22-year-old Xin Yang (shin yuhng) in a campus coffee shop Jan. 21 had anything to do with her ethnicity. Both the victim and suspect Haiyang Zhu (hy-yuhng-joo), who is charged with first-degree murder, are both from China. University spokesman Larry Hincker says ... Read Full Story

Xin Yang Just days after arriving at Virginia Tech to work on her graduate studies, 22-year-old Chinese student Xin Yang was decapitated with a kitchen knife as she sat in a public cafe. Somewhere around 7 p.m. Jan. 21, Yang was allegedly murdered by Haiyang Zhu , a man whose motivations are still unclear. Witnesses report that Yang and Zhu were not arguing before Zhu plunged his knife into the young student as they sat together at the Au Bon Pain cafe on the Virginia Tech campus. Haiyang Zhu Authorities reported at a press conference Thursday that seven people witnessed the murder and two ... Read Full Story