Jury Trial Opens October 12 in Wife-Killing Case of Ex-Google Engineer Liren Chen; Verdict Possible in November
SANTA CLARA COUNTY, California — The jury trial of Liren Chen, a former Google software engineer charged with murdering his wife, Xuanyi Yu, opened on October 12 in the Santa Clara County Superior Court. According to The Beijing News, the trial is expected to last about eight weeks, with a verdict possible in November. The case, No. C2400832, comes more than two years and nine months after the January 2024 killing.
On January 16, 2024, friends of the couple who had been unable to reach them asked police for help. Officers conducting a welfare check at the couple's home in Santa Clara found Yu dead on the bedroom floor with severe blunt-force injuries to her head, with blood on the floor, the walls and the door. Chen was at the scene, his right hand extremely swollen and purple, with blood on his clothing, legs and hands. He told paramedics, "I punched my wife," and said the attack had taken place the day before. Prosecutors charged Chen with murder, and Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen issued a statement on the case addressing domestic violence. Prosecutors said Chen faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.
Both Chen and Yu were 27 at the time. They were classmates in electronic information engineering at Tsinghua University, class of 2018, and both went on to earn master's degrees in computer science at UC San Diego. Chen joined Google in March 2020, working on the recommendation algorithm for YouTube Shorts; Yu joined Google in June 2021, having previously worked at Amazon. The couple bought their Santa Clara home for $2.05 million in April 2023 and had been married for less than two years. Google spokesperson Bailey Tomson said at the time that the company was shocked and saddened by the news.
A preliminary hearing was held on the afternoon of June 23, 2025, in Department 39 of the Santa Clara County Superior Court. According to Modern Express and The Beijing News, a detective testifying at the hearing presented surveillance video from the kitchen and the doorway of the home: at 12:21 a.m. on January 16, 2024, Yu was seen in the kitchen for the last time; at 1:04 a.m. the kitchen light went out, and the detective testified that Yu was beaten to death with bare hands after that point; at 4:43 a.m. Chen appeared in blood-stained clothing; at 5:16 a.m. he appeared again, his right hand swollen and blood on his body; at about 5:20 a.m. he held an electric saw against his own neck; and at 8:10 a.m. he held a wide-bladed knife to his neck. The friend couple, the last people to see the pair alive, also testified, and according to the reports described a marriage already in crisis. Yu's parents attended the hearing online. Archived court records show defense attorney Wesley Schroeder representing Chen and Deputy District Attorney Michael Gadeberg handling the prosecution.
After the preliminary hearing, the case was delayed repeatedly. According to Modern Express, the defense for a long time sought continuances on the ground that it was awaiting a mental-health evaluation report. At a hearing on August 12, 2026, the defense again asked for a two-month delay; prosecutors objected, saying the same reason had been used over and over and that the case had already dragged on for more than two years. After a bench conference, the judge announced on the spot that the jury trial would begin on October 12. Modern Express reported that the hearing began at 1:35 p.m. that day, that Chen appeared in an orange-red jail uniform and handcuffs, accompanied by his lawyer and an interpreter, and that the whole proceeding lasted about 15 to 20 minutes.
The jury trial opened as scheduled on October 12. According to The Beijing News, the trial is expected to run about eight weeks, with jury selection alone taking one to two days; Xu Tianwen, a Chinese-American attorney who observed the proceedings, said a verdict could come in November. GSM will continue to follow the case.
Related: D.C. Man Sentenced to 20 Years for Shooting Death of His Girlfriend
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 San Jose 的圣克拉拉县高等法院大楼（资料照片）。图片来源：Daderot 摄，CC0（公共领域），经维基共享资源（Wikimedia Commons）。Photo: The Santa Clara County Superior Court building in San Jose, California (file photo). Photo by Daderot, CC0 (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
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