A judge decided Monday that the Mr. Hyde inside former Virginia Tech graduate student Haiyang Zhu was too risky to ever be set free.
At a sentencing hearing Monday in Montgomery County Circuit Court, Judge Robert Turk saw two very different sides of Zhu, the 26-year-old former graduate student who killed graduate student Xin Yang in the café of the Graduate Life Center on Jan. 21, 2009.
Ultimately, Turk said the brutality of the murder — Zhu beheaded Yang a day after she ended his hopes of engaging in a romantic relationship — defied any rational explanation.
“I guess the rage you had to do that to someone — it just scares me,” Turk said.
In a hearing that lasted more than two hours, the court heard testimony from a psychologist who examined Zhu, as well as a friend of Zhu who shed light on the inner workings of the convicted killer who sat in the courtroom and stared straight ahead throughout the proceedings.
The prosecution presented testimony, heard through an interpreter, from the victim’s mother.
After sentencing Zhu to life in prison, the maximum term, Turk called Zhu’s case strange and atypical that reminded him of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Stephanie Cox, Zhu’s attorney, presented a new side to the man convicted of first-degree murder in December.
Daniel Murrie, director of psychology at the University of Virginia’s Institute of Law, Psychology and Public Policy, conducted multiple interviews with Zhu, as well as his family and friends, since Zhu was arrested the night of the murder.
While Murrie decided Zhu was competent to stand trial and legally sane, he said mental illness likely played a role in the crime.
Murrie said Zhu’s mother and grandmother had mental illnesses, most likely forms of schizophrenia.
While he said Zhu had likely dealt with depression throughout his life, a series of distressing factors pushed him over the edge after he came to Tech for the fall 2008 semester.
Murrie cited Zhu’s high level of academic achievement in China, then pointed out that his first semester at Tech was not successful in the Ph.D. agricultural economics program.
“He had left for America with high hopes and by the end of his first semester, he was on academic probation,” Murrie said. “Things were looking pretty bleak.”
After the fall 2008 semester, Zhu did not go home for break, but contacted his father wanting to leave school, and mentioned suicidal thoughts.
His family told him to stay in school and seek counseling.
“He was disappointed with his session,” Murrie said. “He may have misunderstood the idea of counseling. He said, ‘The counseling just listened and I went away feeling even worse.’”
However, Zhu was far from alone in his academic troubles. Five of the seven students in Tech’s agricultural economics doctoral program landed on academic probation following the semester.
But Zhu did not confront his academic troubles alone.
The court also heard testimony from Bob Needham, a Tech graduate student in the same program who befriended Zhu during the fall 2008 semester.
Needham knew Zhu as “Ocean,” which Zhu said is the translation of Haiyang.
He described Ocean as a “very courteous” guy who, “never spoke negatively about anything except the pressures of the program.
Needham and Zhu took their problems with the program to university administrators but did not make any headway. They later took a trip to the University of North Carolina-Charlotte to view a different program.
They became close enough that Needham invited Zhu to his December 2008 wedding.
“He got a big smile on his face,” Needham said. “He wanted a written invitation as a keepsake.”
The wedding transformed Zhu.
“He was having a great time,” Needham said. “He was very social, talking to whoever was there.”
At the reception, Zhu caught the garter, which Needham explained meant he would be the next male to marry.
Murrie said Zhu made reference to the wedding during their sessions.
“Maybe in too logical a way, he decided he was going to get married,” Murrie said.
Zhu first communicated with Yang shortly after the wedding on a social network site frequented by Chinese-Americans.
He later hosted her in Blacksburg as she secured housing and began taking classes at Tech. Zhu told Murrie he never actually had a romantic relationship with Yang, but became obsessive about pursuing one.
“He tended to talk about fate and destiny very seriously and linked that in with the victim when he met her,” Murrie said.
Murrie said the way Zhu described it “started to sound pretty atypical.” However, Murrie described Yang as a driving force in Zhu’s life.
“This is the one time he didn’t feel depressed,” Murrie said.
Zhu made a couple attempts at starting a romantic relationship when Yang arrived in Blacksburg, only a very short time before she was killed.
“No matter what info is coming in, he’s filing it away as consistent with what he was hoping for,” Murrie said.
Murrie said when classes started, just days before the murder, Zhu “broke down,” to Yang during a study session and explained his feelings.
Yang told him she was engaged to another man.
“Somewhere in the night he got the idea he should take her with him to the next life,” Murrie said. “The belief was unprecedented. He had no cultural or religious beliefs to support the idea.”
Murrie, who diagnosed Zhu with only depression, said he was delusional, but did not display full symptoms of any other mental illness.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Brad Finch described the murder as “predatory aggression.”
He said Zhu bought the knives he would use to kill Yang and then called her more than a dozen times that day to arrange a meeting. He later found her inside the GLC café and killed her. He cited multitudes of defensive wounds on Yang’s hands and arms and presented pictures of the crime scene to the judge.
Neither Murrie nor Finch could produce any reason for the brutal nature of the crime, which Turk made reference to on several occasions during the hearing.
Following his arrest and incarceration, Zhu tried to carry out his plan to join Yang in the afterlife.
Two weeks after the murder, he was found hanging in his prison cell, and was revived.
Since then, Zhu has been treated for mental illness and Cox said he is currently on Prozac.
Needham has visited Zhu in prison on several occasions.
“More recently he’s opened up to his feelings and emotions,” Needham said. “He’ll talk about things he’s struggling with.”
At first, Needham said tearfully he could not believe that “Ocean,” had committed the murder, but he now is attempting to support his friend.
“Though I don’t agree with the actions that were taken, Ocean is still a person,” Needham said. “I still care about him. I want to be there for him and support him.”
Zhu made a brief statement at the end of the hearing.
“I would like to offer my most sincere apology and my deepest remorse to the victim’s family, the Virginia Tech community and the Blacksburg community for what I’ve done,” Zhu said.
Turk then sentenced Haiyang “Ocean” Zhu to life in prison, and said the case lacked any rational explanation.