Candice Jang was seen walking through her Dublin, California, neighbourhood with her three young children after her parents appeared in court accused of murdering her estranged husband, New York Times executive Jonathan McKinsey.
Jang, 46, did not comment when approached on Wednesday, as she returned from a nearby mobile phone shop with the children and a female friend. The friend asked for privacy because the family was together.
The sighting came about an hour after Shouyong Zhang and Shili Chen, both 77, made their first court appearance over McKinsey’s fatal shooting at a local park on Saturday afternoon.
The couple each face murder and 11 other criminal counts. One allegation is that they were “lying in wait”, a charge that presumes premeditation and carries a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.
Jang and the children are believed to have remained in the townhome she once shared with McKinsey, 40, since his death. Dublin police raided the property on Tuesday evening.
Parents appear in court over New York Times executive’s death
Zhang and Chen appeared behind a thick courtroom window on Wednesday. Chen wore a green top and face mask, while Zhang was dressed in an orange Alameda County custody uniform.
They communicated quietly through a Mandarin-language interpreter. Chen told the judge she could not afford a lawyer, saying: “I do not have the financial means.” She was ordered to return on Thursday to be assigned a defence solicitor.
Zhang was represented by Jennie Otis of the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office.
Police allege that the elderly couple took turns firing at McKinsey in the car park of a Dublin sports grounds store. A police sergeant driving nearby saw him on the ground as witnesses called 911.
Witnesses later identified the pair in a nearby car and they were taken into custody within minutes, according to police.
McKinsey was director of engineering for the New York Times’ games department and had worked in games technology for the organisation since 2023. He transitioned from female to male in 2010 and married Jang the following year.
His death came as the couple were living separately and involved in a bitter divorce and custody dispute over their three children, believed to be aged seven, five and three.
Restraining orders and custody dispute
Both McKinsey and Jang had filed restraining-order applications against one another, alleging physical, emotional and psychological abuse over more than a decade.
In a 2023 application, McKinsey alleged that Jang and her parents had verbally and physically abused him in connection with his gender transition. He also claimed that Chen objected after seeing their son wearing his sister’s dresses.
McKinsey alleged that Chen called the child “a disgusting queer” and “a pervert”, and directed similar insults at him. He also claimed Jang had refused his request to arrange alternative childcare so that Chen would not look after the children.
In other court filings, McKinsey alleged that Jang had encouraged him to take his own life and had struck him with a frying pan in 2013. Those claims were allegations contained in his applications.
Jang later sought her own protection order, alleging that McKinsey had threatened to kill her and her parents. She also alleged that he had grabbed her during an argument in 2010, causing her to hit a coffee table and fracture a vertebra in her upper back.
McKinsey denied the allegations against him and pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor child-abuse charges brought last year. Court documents state that he was accused of hitting the couple’s oldest son, leaving a large hand-shaped bruise, and endangering their youngest child after the toddler was allegedly found at home alone.
He was released on $50,000 bail on condition that he complete 12 parenting classes. Jang obtained a domestic-violence protection order against him in October, while McKinsey filed for divorce and requested more time with the children.
Records show he had been limited to two hours of supervised visits each week, before being granted unsupervised public visits twice a week in late August. He was killed a week before a scheduled hearing in the divorce case.
