Some victim-blaming appears to have already begun in the case of the murder of 40-year-old New York Times Games engineer Jonathan McKinsey, as the suspected shooters, McKinsey's elderly in-laws, lawyer up.
Experienced Bay Area defense attorney Curtis Briggs has apparently been hired to defend 77-year-old Shili Chen in the murder case, and as he told reporters Thursday outside an Alameda County courtroom, per KTVU, he plans to enter a guilty plea on behalf of his client. And it sounds like he gunning to get her out on bail, saying, "My client weighs about 80 pounds. She's in one of the toughest jails in the county. She's a loving, devoted grandmother... [who] probably couldn't handle being in custody."
Briggs was part of the team representing noted SF Chinatown gangster Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow in his federal case over a decade ago, and he also successfully defended Max Harris, the doorman and Ghost Ship resident who faced involuntary manslaughter charges following the tragic December 2016 fire at the Oakland warehouse/residence/venue that killed 36 people.
Briggs further gave some hints about his defense strategy, as it stands, casting McKinsey as a rage-filled person who had "terrorized" this family for years and brutally abused his wife and children — which may or may not be born out in evidence and previous court filings in the case.
McKinsey "rained hell on his family for years," Briggs said, per the California Post. "He was extremely rageful, could not control his temper, abused his wife so badly at one point he fractured her spine, abused the kids so badly that a court in Alameda County had to send him to parenting classes. McKinsey was extremely violent and dangerous to his family."
McKinsey died from several gunshots at close range in a parking lot at the Dublin Sports Center last Saturday. Witnesses, and apparent surveillance video, reportedly show Chen and her 77-year-old husband, Shouyong Zhang, shooting McKinsey "in concert," prosecutors say, using two guns.
Per KTVU, Zhang is expected to be represented by his own attorney.
There remains an open question about how much the couple's daughter, McKinsey's wife, Candice Jang, knew about the planned ambush killing. In response to questions about whether the parents acted on their daughter's behalf, Briggs said, per the Post, "I can’t make a comment about that right now. I don’t know. That’s speculation that’s going around in the public. All I know is that Mr. McKinsey had a reputation terrorizing his family, extremely violent, volatile, rageful, and he was a dangerous person."
According to court filings from late last year, and dueling requests for restraining orders against each other, McKinsey accused his mother-in-law of calling both him and his son "disgusting queer," and slapping his son in the head when he once asked about wearing his sister's dresses.
McKinsey, who was trans and completed a gender transition in or around 2010, further claimed that his father-in-law punched him in the chest after he'd undergone a recent double-mastectomy.
Jang claimed that McKinsey had hit their son, and that eight years ago he had bruised her forearms in a fight and knocked her into the corner of a table, causing damage to a vertebra. McKinsey had filed for divorce in December 2025, but Jang was granted full custody, until a judge in August allowed McKinsey two unsupervised visits with his children per week.
Those visits were relegated to public spaces, like parks or libraries, and it's unclear if any of the children were present at the park in Dublin next to which the shooting took place.
On Wednesday, Chen and Zhang were charged with first-degree murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, conspiracy to commit murder, and child endangerment, among other charges.
Previously: Accusations of Transphobia and Abuse Revealed In Court Filings Linked to Dublin Homicide
Join the conversation
Comments
Comments load automatically as this section approaches.