The daughter of the elderly couple accused of killing their transgender former son-in-law has no connection to the shooting, according to a defense lawyer.
Candice Jang, 47, a mother of three, was questioned by police after the killing. But Curtis Briggs, who represents her 77-year-old mother, Shili Chen, told The Post: “I don’t think she’s involved in the case.”
Briggs has spoken with Jang since the shooting, although she is not his client. He added, however, that she “is technically under investigation.”
The Post was present when police searched Jang’s three-bedroom townhome last month, three days after her former husband, Jonathan McKinsey, was killed. Investigators seized several items, including her computer and Lexus SUV.
Chen and her husband, Shouyoung Zhang, also 77, were arrested on Sept. 26, minutes after McKinsey, 40, was shot in an execution-style attack in a parking area in Dublin, roughly 25 miles southeast of Oakland.
McKinsey, a gaming software executive at The New York Times, had just finished a custody visit with the couple’s children at a sports center, Briggs told The Post.
“They were just wrapping up a court-supervised visit at a park in a public place where it could be supervised just to ensure the kids’ safety,” Briggs said.
The precise sequence of events remains unclear, but Briggs exclusively confirmed to The Post that Jang had dropped off the children so they could meet with their father and picked them up before the shooting.
“It happened just as the meeting was wrapping up,” Briggs explained. “So Mr. McKinsey was on his way back to his car.”
“My understanding is that Candice had left with the kids.”
McKinsey was fatally wounded moments later.
Witnesses have previously said Chen and Zhang appeared to take turns firing at McKinsey. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
The owner of the Creative Energy hot tub store across from the shooting scene told The Post he heard “eight or nine” gunshots.
McKinsey transitioned during his 14-year marriage to Jang and was shot in front of shocked bystanders, including children.
Briggs declined to explain why the grandparents were at the sports center, but said they “were not picking up the kids.”
He also confirmed to The Post that police recovered “a small caliber handgun” at the scene.
Briggs described Chen as “not operating at a high cognitive level,” adding: “She’s elderly, forgetful, confused, overwhelmed.”
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He characterized her as “pretty quiet and timid” and “a traditional Chinese woman.”
Briggs also repeated his sensational claim that McKinsey had threatened to hire a hitman to kill Chen, whom he described as the children’s “primary nanny.”
Chen and Zhang had bought weapons earlier in the year for self-defense, Briggs said.
“My client carried a gun because she was afraid that Mr. McKinsey was going to harm her and the grandchildren.
“She’d been carrying a gun for a while. So that was not an unusual thing for her,” explained Briggs.
Of McKinsey, Briggs stated Chen “was not responsible for his death.”
Explosive divorce papers filed by Jang detailed disturbing instances of emotional and physical abuse by McKinsey — toward her and their children.
McKinsey, who made similar accusations against his estranged wife and her parents, filed for divorce in December 2025. They had married in Texas in 2011.
Briggs was visiting with his Chinese-born client in jail on Tuesday, speaking through a Mandarin interpreter, and described her as “stressed out, anxious, scared, nervous for her kids.
“There’s still a very strong sense of fear from Mr. McKinsley’s family.”
McKinsey exhibited a “pattern of violence against the children was something very real the family was dealing with.”
“At one point, he had threatened to have somebody kill her.
“And then during the last year during the divorce, he had mentioned to my client that he was going to get rid of her a couple of times.
He told his wife he would have her mother killed, explained Briggs, “and that he knew someone who would do it.”
Briggs described McKinsey as “very, very unstable” over the past 15 to 20 years, alleging that he once broke his wife’s vertebrae during an argument.
The defense attorney said he is now reviewing evidence turned over by prosecutors, including “thousands and thousands of videos and pictures.”
Briggs also claimed that Chen and her family endured years of alleged abuse and intimidation at McKinsey’s hands.
“It’s really sad to see all of the suffering,” he said.
