Jennifer Pan

Release time：2024-05-21 17:43:03 Source：Culture Channel news portal

One of Netflix 's most popular true crime documentaries has revealed astonishing details about a 2010 murder-for-hire case, including the fact that the perpetrators are currently awaiting retrial.

What Jennifer Did, released April 10, chronicles the life of Jennifer Pan and the events that led to her the slaying of her mother, Bich Pan, and attempted murder of her father, Huei Hann Pan.

Jennifer was found guilty of hiring hitmen to kill her parents, but she successfully appealed her first degree murder charge and is now awaiting a new trial date.

She remains in prison on an attempted murder charge, but will be back in court in June for her next court date.

Netflix's What Jennifer Did has exposed the shocking details behind Jennifer Pan's murder-for-hire plot that led to the death of her mother and attempted slaying of her father

The documentary highlights Pan's complicated relationship with her parents, Huei Hann Pan (right) and Bich Pan (left)

Pan was convicted in 2015 and handed a life sentence - but the case is now heading to retrial after she and her three co-conspirators appealed the ruling

Huei Hann Pan fled to a neighbor's house after suffering gunshot wounds to his face and shoulder, and later went on to testify against his daughter, who was just 24 years old at the time.

During the trial, prosecutors claimed Pan began plotting her parents' murder after they forced her to choose between them and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Daniel Wong. 

After her parents forbade her from seeing him, the pair allegedly conspired to kill them to get their hands on her $500,000 inheritance.

Pan testified she had a contentious relationship with her father, who she dubbed the 'rule maker,' but was closer with her mother.

The documentary highlights Pan's complicated relationship with her strict parents including a web of conspiracy stretching back to high school, when she doctored report cars, faked her graduation and subsequently lied about attending college.

On the night of November 8, 2010, prosecutors asserted, Pan left the door unfastened so Wong's hitmen could slip inside and carry out the murders. They shot her parents multiple times, killing her mother and badly wounding her father.

In 2015, the 28-year-old Pan was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder and handed a life sentence with no parole for 25 years. 

Wong and his co-conspirators, Lenford Crawford and David Mylvaganam, were also found guilty. 

A fourth man, Eric Carty, was also implicated in the scheme. He was serving a separate sentence for killing his friend when he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to an additional 18 years.

He died in 2018 after being stabbed in prison, police said.

Pan and her boyfriend, Daniel Wong(left), allegedly conspired to kill her parents to get her inheritance. Eric Carty (right) was also implicated in the scheme, but was killed in prison while serving back-to-back sentences

Wong's hitmen, Lenford Crawford (left) and David Mylvaganam (right) were both found guilty of their involvement in the crime and sentenced to time behind bars

Prosecutors accused Pan of leaving a door unlocked at the family's Markham home to allow the killers to enter

However, all convictions, including Pan's, have since been tossed out, and the documentary ends without explaining why they are slated for retrial.

The overturned convictions came after Pan and the three surviving co-conspirators appealed the verdict.

Attorneys for the defendants argued that presiding judge Justice Cary Boswell improperly instructed the jury, leading them to consider only two 'paths to liability' for the accused.

Boswell laid out two possible scenarios for how the crime occurred - either the defendants plotted to murder both of Jennifer’s parents, or they planned to 'commit a home invasion/robbery' that caused the deaths.

The appeal argued these instructions limited conclusions the jurors could have drawn from the evidence, including a third scenario presented by Pan herself, who argued she had hired the hitmen to kill her, not her parents.

In May 2023, a Canadian appellate panel agreed with the defense.

'In my view, this is the most difficult and most consequential error that is put forward,' Justice Ian Nordheimer wrote in the decision.

Netflix's What Jennifer Did is set to be released on April 10

The group stole some money hidden around the home and then led the parents to the basement where each was shot multiple times

Police found splatters of blood trailed throughout the house as one investigator branded it as 'something we had never seen before'

'If it succeeds, it requires a new trial for all the appellants on the murder charge. I have concluded that it does.'

The defendants have remained in jail while awaiting their retrials after the court rejected their appeals for their convictions for Huei Hann Pan's attempted murder.

Unlike the United States, Canadian prosecutors also have the right of appeal at this stage in the proceedings. In August 2023, prosecutors for the Pan case filed their own appeal against the appellate ruling with the Canadian Supreme Court.

Now, the case has entered a standstill as the parties await a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on whether to hear arguments on the appeal.

If the Supreme Court declines to do so, or if they hear the arguments but side with the defense, the retrial order remains, meaning the parties will then have for the lower courts to decide whether to bring the case to a retrial.

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