Murder of Yang Xin

The murder of Yang Xin was an incident that took place on 21 January 2009 at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Yang Xin, a 22-year-old Chinese graduate student who had just arrived from Beijing on January 8, was decapitated with a kitchen knife in a cafe on the campus. Fellow student Zhu Haiyang (朱海洋), 25, was arrested at the scene. Zhu and Yang had known one another. Zhu was charged with first degree murder and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Yang had previously graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2007.

Two years earlier, Virginia Tech had also been the scene of the Virginia Tech massacre.

University president Charles W. Steger said that he was troubled by racist comments attacking foreigners in e-mail, on blogs and in letters to the editor. He also said that foreign students are extremely under-represented in crime compared to their number.

A grand jury certified the murder charge against Haiyang Zhu on July 22. On December 21, 2009, Zhu plead guilty to the charges. On April 19th, 2010, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Montgomery County Circuit Court.