Wealthy student Joshua Michals called dad to ask for lawyer as his girlfriend lay dying: court

A wealthy American student stabbed his girlfriend to death in her London apartment — and then called his dad to get a lawyer as she lay dying, prosectors in the UK said.

Joshua Michals, 26, from Chicago, killed Zhe Wang, 31, after she accused him of giving her a sexually transmitted infection during the one time they had sex.

Michals clutched his chest before placing his head in his hands as he was convicted of murdering Wang on March 20, 2024, at the Old Bailey in London on Monday.

Michals, whose father, David, is vice president of sales strategy for a Chicago-based company, claimed Wang had come at him with a knife and said he killed her accidentally while trying to protect himself.

His parents, who privately funded his defense, were in the court watching as their son was found guilty of murder.

Michals was studying for a master’s degree in filmmaking at Goldsmiths, University of London, and described himself as a cinematographer, photographer and drone pilot on his LinkedIn page.

He graduated from DePaul University in August 2022 with a BFA in Cinematography and Film/Video Production, his profile states.

Wang, a self-confessed “germophobe,” had accused her American boyfriend of giving her a venereal disease after she developed a rash, and Michals had gone over to confront her, the judge was told.

The pair had been seeing each other for only six months and had slept together only once in that time, in February 2024, because of Wang’s high standards of cleanliness, the judge was told.

She would disinfect his sofa before she sat on it, and cleaned his apartment when she came to visit, Michals told the judge.

When they agreed to have sex, Wang sent Michals instructions on how to enter her apartment, wash himself, and put on the condom before coming to the bedroom where she would be waiting.

Wang had insisted Michals show her his STI test results before they had sex, but after developing a rash, possibly as a side effect of taking the morning-after pill, she demanded he take another test.

When Michals refused, Wang accused him of ruining her life and threatened to go to the university.

The pair also argued because Wang wanted a serious relationship and she was frustrated Michals wasn’t making more time for her, the judge was told.

On the day of the murder, Michals had gone to Wang’s apartment to make a charcuterie board to try and console her, but after an argument broke out, he stabbed her in the face twice and strangled her before leaving her home.

Wang may have survived if Michals hadn’t spoken to his father to get the details of a solicitor before calling an ambulance later that night, prosecutors said.

“It’s not what it seems,” he told police when they arrived to find Wang lying in a pool of blood in her bedroom, the judge heard.

“This case concerns the killing of a young woman by a man she’d only been seeing a few short months.” prosecutor Henriette Paget told the judge.

“This was a brutal and savage attack. She was killed in her own bedroom,” she added.

Wang was an aspiring teacher who was studying an MA in Creative Writing and Education, also at Goldsmiths, University of London.

The pair met while she was collecting her student ID card, the judge was told.

Michals will be sentenced at a later agreed date which is convenient for both his parents and Wang’s family, Judge Richard Marks said.