A plea hearing has been set for the former Virginia Tech graduate student accused of the Jan. 21 murder of a fellow graduate student in the Graduate Life Center.
Haiyang Zhu, who is charged with the first-degree murder of Xin Yang, had previously been set for a February 2010 trial, but the plea hearing was added to the docket for Dec. 21, 2009.
According to a Roanoke Times report, a fax to the Circuit Court included the phrase, “def to PG,” which the report said could indicate that Zhu will plead guilty.
Zhu was arrested on the scene of the Jan. 21 murder in the Au Bon Pain cafe in the GLC, after Yang was found beheaded.
He had been declared mentally capable to stand trial in July.