A doctor who police say killed a Yale University physician in 2010 over a workplace dispute was sentenced to 32 years in prison on Friday. The sentencing comes more than seven years after the crime and the judge said he wished he could have issued a life sentence.
Lishan Wang pleaded no contest in June to manslaughter and other charges in the death of 34-year-old Dr. Vajinder Toor, who was shot and killed outside his Branford home in April 2010.
Prosecutors said Wang, a Chinese citizen, shot Toor five times and shot at, but missed Toor's pregnant wife, Parneeta Sidhu, who took cover behind a car. The couple's young son was also home at the time of the shooting.
“I sat down and I placed my husband’s head on my lap and held him in my arms as he breathed his last breath in my arms in front of our 3-year old son and my daughter in my womb,” Sidhu said.
Toor died before his daughter would be born.
"We went together for the ultrasound and he told me he can't wait to hold his baby girl in his arms," Sidhu said. "Little did we know that within a month, our family would be robbed of our happiness for the rest of our lives."
Judge Patrick Clifford said Friday he has no mercy for Wang, who to this day insists that Dr. Toor contributed to his wrongful termination from a Brooklyn hospital in 2008.
‘You’re alive and you killed him and you’re still focused on being fired, which you probably should have been fired,” Clifford said.
Authorities said the shooting stemmed from a 2008 workplace dispute at a New York City hospital.
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The sentencing ended seven years of legal proceedings and State’s Attorney Eugene Calistro Jr. apologized for the lengthy timespan.
“As a member of the state’s attorney’s office for over 25 years, I sympathize and I apologize to the family of Dr. Vajinder Toor for the delay in this case,” Calistro said.
Wang has been under a judge's orders to be forcibly medicated against his will to treat his mental illness. On Friday, the judge ordered a protective order for the Toor family and said he wished he could have sentenced Wang to life in prison.
When his sentence is over, Wang will be in his 70s and he’s subject to deportation because he’s a Chinese national.
