Correction appended
Former student Charles Tan ’17 has decided not to return to Cornell after second degree murder charges against him were dropped in November of last year.
Tan, 20, was charged with the murder of his father, who was found shot multiple times in Tan’s Pittsford home last February. Charges against the student were dropped after a four week trial in October ended in a hung jury.
Although Tan originally planned to return to Cornell after his trial, he withdrew in advance of a disciplinary hearing that would have determined whether he violated the University’s code of conduct, Tan’s lawyer Brian DeCarolis told the Democrat and Chronicle.
DeCarolis added that Tan plans to continue his education at a school where people are not as familiar with his case, according to The Ithaca Voice.
Tan’s case was thrown out in a surprise move by Judge James Piampiano last year. Assistant District Attorney William Gargan was especially upset at the jury’s decision, accusing Piampiano of “amnesia,” according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Piampiano responded by threatening to put Gargan in handcuffs, but Gargan said he did not regret his actions.
“I stand by every decision I made here and I was more than willing to have handcuffs placed on me to be able to argue my point, because I didn’t cross any lines,” Gargan said.
He added that although the judge dismissed the case, he believed there was enough evidence to convict Tan.
“When you have someone saying, ‘I did it. I had to do it. He was going to kill my mother.’ And you find the deceased. And you find the murder weapons. And the judge took great pains to point out that the murder weapon was found not in the house, but in the garage,” he said. “That’s the sort of nuance that is of little meaning.”
Tan’s defense team, however, emphasized that they believed the judge made the right decision.
“He’s been living a nightmare for over a year with this case going on,” said James Nobles, one of Tan’s defense lawyers. “Certainly at this point in time he can move on with the rest of his life.”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly indicated that Tan’s father was shot 12 times.