Walnut Creek Double Murder Defendant Charged With Additional 2024 Murder

Howard Wang allegedly stabbed his wife and mother-in-law to death in their Walnut Creek home last year – then tried to blame the murders on a mystery intruder when police arrived to investigate.

Prosecutors allege Wang committed the murders so he could be with his girlfriend Yan Wang, no relation, who was later arrested for trying to remove evidence from the crime scene. Howard Wang has been in jail since the murders – though he was scheduled for arraignment Monday, today, for yet another homicide related to his yearning for Wang, the June 2024 murder of Chengli Li, a man apparently dating Yan Wang in San Gabriel when Wang allegedly arranged to have him killed.

Now, Howard Wang, 43, and 33-year-old Demarques James Pearl of Los Angeles have been charged with killing Li, gunned down outside his apartment on June 8th, 2024. Investigators alleged Wang and Pearl planned Li’s murder before traveling together from the Bay Area to los Angeles County the day before the murder.

Li’s murder will be prosecuted in tandem with the Walnut Creek double murders, prosecutors say. Both men were scheduled to be arraigned today until objections from defense counsel prompted the judge to postpone the hearing.