Lehigh chemistry student ‘needed his roommate’s attention.’ So he poisoned him.
Updated: Mar. 24, 2021, 3:59 p.m.|Published: Mar. 24, 2021, 2:09 p.m.

Yukai Yang was described Wednesday as a brilliant chemistry student with a near-perfect academic record at Lehigh University.

But he was also described as lonely, a perfectionistic, overwhelmed and suffering from a “schizoid personality disorder.”

When the 25-year-old Chinese citizen learned his roommate was moving out on him, he snapped, according to testimony in Northampton County Court.

So he started slipping the poison thallium into the mouthwash and food of the roommate, Juwan Royal.

Yang was sentenced Wednesday to seven to 20 years in prison after previously pleading guilty to attempted first-degree murder. He’ll be deported when he’s paroled.

Judge Stephen Baratta said Yang was under tremendous pressure from his parents and grandparents to succeed. He had no friends, so he clung to Royal to fulfill his need for human contact.

The judge was at a loss to explain why Yang would poison his only friend from February through April 2018. Baratta said Royal was “the only person (Yang) had affection for and the only person he thinks understands him a little bit.”

“That’s the only thing I can look at to explain, ‘How does this happen?’” Baratta said.

The effects of the poison were devastating. Royal suffered fainting spells, pain in his limbs, vomiting and diarrhea. At its worst it left him unable to care for himself, screaming for days and unable to sleep due to the pain.

“The shrieks he would make, as though someone were stabbing him with an icepick. I can’t get the shrieks out of my head,” said his father, Fred Royal.

Fred Royal was mentally unshaken after service in the Gulf War but he was emotionally unprepared for what happened to his son.

“It was so bad I did the coward’s thing. I would get up an hour early and go to work because I couldn’t stand the sound (of screams). I would be curled up on the floor in the fetal position wondering how this could happen to my son,” Fred Royal said.

Yang apologized to the Royal family.

“I cannot undo the damage I have done to your life,” Yang said. “I wish I could. I’m here today to accept the punishment I deserve and to apologize.”

Yang said he was under tremendous pressure. He tried suicide multiple times. He wrote a bizarre six-page letter Baratta referenced that Yang called his “last song.” The letter referenced suicide and an imaginary girlfriend.

Yang claims he got the thallium to harm himself.

“His belief was that he put just enough of the chemical into the food to catch (Royal’s) attention,” said psychologist Frank Dattillio, who diagnosed Yang with schizoid personality disorder. “He said to me, ‘I know how much I needed to put in there to kill him because I know how much I need to take my own life.’”

Baratta rejected that claim. There are far less painful ways to kill oneself than with heavy metal poisoning, the judge said.

The judge asked Juwan Royal whether he felt Yang was dangerous or just disturbed.

“From what I could gather, it seemed like it’s a mixture of both,” Royal said. “He has some serious issues and he is capable of causing serious issues.”

The latter reason was why Baratta imposed significant prison time.

“If he could injure his best friend, he could injure anybody. That’s my concern,” Baratta said.

The sentence fell short of the 20-year minimum asked of by First Deputy District Attorney Richard Pepper.

“Let’s get him mental health treatment and put him in jail for a very long time,” Pepper said.

Royal said he still suffers pain three years after the poisoning and worries it could plague him for the rest of his life.

But Royal and his mother both forgive Yang.

“Forgiveness is for yourself. I need that to be at peace,” said Royal’s mother.

Fred Royal could not forget the summers he hosted Yang at his home and the kindness his family gave Yang.

“When the truth came out I couldn’t believe it,” Fred Royal said.

He could not forgive Yang.

“You get no forgiveness from me. Know that,” Fred Royal said.