The wife of slain New York Times executive Jonathan McKinsey and daughter of his accused killers was seen strolling with her three young children in their Bay Area neighborhood Wednesday.
The sighting came about an hour after Candice Jang’s 77-year-old parents, Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, made their first court appearance, each accused of murder and 11 other criminal counts for their alleged part in McKinsey’s shooting death in the parking lot of a local park Saturday afternoon.
One of those counts includes 'lying in wait' – a charge that presumes premeditation and carries a life-in-prison sentence with no chance of parole.
Jang, 46, her two sons and daughter, were believed to have been holed up since Saturday in the townhome they once shared with McKinsey, 40, in Dublin, about 30 miles east of San Francisco. Their place was raided by Dublin police on Tuesday evening.
When approached by the Daily Mail on a sidewalk Wednesday, Jang refused to comment on her estranged husband’s murder and on what her parents may have shared with her before they both allegedly gunned him down.
A female friend who was accompanying the family on their walk home from a nearby cell phone store cited the presence of the three children, who are believed to be ages 7, 5 and 3, in asking for privacy.
McKinsey, 40, was director of engineering for the New York Times’ games department. He transitioned from female to male in 2010, a year before he married Jang, who is six years his elder.
His in-laws were arrested almost immediately after his killing on Saturday.
Jang, 46, her two sons and daughter, were believed to have been holed up since Saturday in the townhome they once shared with McKinsey
When approached by the Daily Mail on a sidewalk Wednesday, Jang refused to comment on her estranged husband’s murder
The couple is believed to have been living in Dublin after several years in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where their daughter, a stay-at-home wife and mother, spent some of her youth.
They appeared behind a thick window adjacent to the courtroom Wednesday, she wearing a green top and face mask and he in an orange uniform typical of most other defendants held in Alameda County custody. They communicated quietly and calmly through a Mandarin-language interpreter.
Chen, Jang’s mother, agreed to return to court Thursday morning to be assigned a defense lawyer after telling the judge, through the interpreter, that “I do not have the financial means” to pay for her own legal defense.
Shouyong, her husband, was represented in court by Jennie Otis of the Alameda County Public Defender’s office.
McKinsey’s slaying came as he and Jang were living separately, each having filed restraining orders against the other as they went through a bitter divorce and custody battle.
Court records obtained by the Daily Mail show he pleaded not guilty to two charges of misdemeanor child abuse last year.
Jonathan McKinsey, 40, who had worked in games tech for the New York Times since 2023, was shot dead in the parking lot of a Dublin Sports Grounds store in Dublin, California on Saturday
McKinsey's in-laws - Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77 - were both arrested on suspicion of murder in the wake of the bloodshed
The brazen, daylight attack unfolded on Saturday afternoon when the couple allegedly took turns opening fire on their son-in-law in the parking lot.
A police sergeant happened to be driving nearby and saw the victim lying on the ground just as witnesses began frantically calling 911, authorities said.
Within minutes, the couple were taken into custody after witnesses were able to point them out in a nearby car, according to police.
The slaying came as McKinsey and his estranged wife were embroiled in a contentious divorce and a custody battle over their three young children.
In petitions for restraining orders filed last year, the couple – who wed in July 2011 - had both accused each other of physical, emotional and psychological abuse stretching back well over a decade.
McKinsey alleged that Jang and her parents had been verbally and physically abusive regarding a gender transition he underwent years ago.
According to a restraining order McKinsey filed against Jang in 2023, a visit Chen made to their home to watch their children led to a hostile interaction between the father and his in-laws.
McKinsey claimed in the filing that Chen had become upset when she saw McKinsey's son asked to wear his sister’s dresses.
McKinsey, a transgender New York Times games executive, had previously angered them by letting his son wear girls dresses, according to court documents
Witnesses described seeing the elderly couple walking calmly away from the scene in the aftermath. They were arrested after being tracked to a black sedan (pictured above) at a nearby intersection
After telling his mother-in-law it was just a 'phase' his son was going through, McKinsey alleged that Chen responded by berating him and his son.
He alleged Chen called the young child a 'disgusting queer' and a 'pervert' before calling him the same names as she admonished him for being transgender, the filing said.
McKinsey alleged that when he begged Chen to stop berating his son, his mother-in-law then turned her anger toward him, according to the filing.
'She blamed me for Wyatt wanting to wear his sister’s dresses and told me to get out of "her house" even though we were in the home owned by Candice and I,' McKinsey wrote in the filing.
He added that he attempted to make his wife hire outside help to prevent Chen from ever watching their children again but claimed Jang refused.
McKinsey also filed allegations of abuse from Jang in their relationship, including claiming that she tried to push him into suicide, according to his court filings.
According to McKinsey, his wife told him he should take his own life because 'no one would want to be with someone as f***ed up and transgender like me.'
McKinsey had also claimed in 2013 that his wife beat him with a frying pan - and claimed Jang denigrated their children.
Jang, for her part, went on to file her own restraining order against McKinsey last year, alleging he had 'threatened to kill me and my parents.'
McKinsey had previously faced two counts of misdemeanor child abuse, but had claimed in court filings that his wife - who he was divorcing - had been abusive to him
Meanwhile, McKinsey was arrested last October and charged with misdemeanor child abuse for allegedly hitting their oldest son and leaving a 'large bruise in the shape of a handprint' on his face, court documents state.
He was also charged with endangering their youngest child after deputies responded to the family’s home to talk with him and found their 2-year-old had been left home alone, according to court papers.
McKinsey, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, was ultimately freed on a $50,000 bail on the condition that he complete 12 parenting classes.
Jang had obtained a domestic violence protection order against McKinsey in October – the same month of his arrest.
She alleged in her filing that McKinsey had grabbed her by the forearms during one argument in 2010 – causing her to hit the corner of a coffee table and fracture a vertebra in her upper back.
McKinsey responded to the court filing by requesting his own domestic violence protection order and filing for divorce.
He had also sought more time with his three kids, noting in court documents that he had been limited to two hours of supervised visits per week since last fall.
In late August, McKinsey was granted unsupervised visits in public twice a week, records show.
McKinsey died a week shy of a scheduled hearing in the bitter divorce case.