Overview
- Contra Costa County prosecutors added a new murder count Monday tying Howard Wang, 43, to the June 2024 shooting of Chengli Li in San Gabriel, with co-defendant Demarques James Pearl, 33, also charged and arraignments set for Pearl on April 1 and Wang on April 14 in Martinez.
- Prosecutors say Wang and Pearl planned the San Gabriel attack, traveled from the Bay Area to Los Angeles County on June 7, 2024, and shot Li outside his apartment the next day.
- Wang was already charged in the Sept. 18, 2025 killings of his wife, Linlin Guo, and her mother, Beimin Cheng, in Walnut Creek, where investigators say the victims’ throats were slashed and two young children in the home were not hurt.
- Yan Wang, identified by prosecutors as Howard Wang’s girlfriend and unrelated to him, is charged as an accessory as well as with burglary and destroying cellphones that investigators say held evidence.
- Officials said the Los Angeles County case will be consolidated with the Walnut Creek charges in Contra Costa County, and if convicted on the murder counts Wang could face life in prison without parole, with all allegations pending in pretrial proceedings.