Jonathan McKinsey, a 40-year-old New York Times executive, was allegedly killed by his elderly in-laws in a California parking lot while attending a supervised visit with his children, prosecutors said.
McKinsey was reportedly shot on September 26 at the Dublin Sports Ground in Dublin, California. Witnesses said Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, took turns firing at him.
At the couple’s plea hearing Monday, prosecutors said McKinsey had been at the sports complex to meet his children during the court-ordered visit.
Zhang and Chen pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges, according to KTVU.
The hearing also brought renewed attention to allegations that McKinsey had previously threatened to hire a hitman to “get rid of” his mother-in-law. Chen’s attorney, Curtis Briggs, made the claim outside court Monday.
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Briggs said the couple bought firearms in March 2026 because they feared their son-in-law. The weapons, he argued, were intended for protection rather than as part of a premeditated plan to kill McKinsey.
According to the defense attorney, Chen and Zhang never conspired to murder McKinsey but became increasingly frightened as the family conflict intensified.
Court documents also allege that McKinsey had threatened to kill his wife and her parents. The documents state that he gave his children a book about a young girl whose mother had died.
“During our marriage, the children and I learned to avoid provoking Jonathan lest he became angry. In my experience, appearing agreeable or happy around him was sometimes a means of avoiding his anger,” McKinsey’s wife, Candice Jang, said in an August custody filing obtained by The California Post.
McKinsey and Jang married in 2010, but she filed for divorce in 2025. That year, Jang also sought a restraining order against him, while McKinsey responded by filing for one of his own.
