Abstract:
After more than two years of tug-of-war, the "Google engineer's murder of his wife" case has ushered in the latest progress. On October 19, local time, the case opened again in the Santa Clara County Court in California. The lawyer for the defendant Chen formally applied for a not guilty plea on the grounds that "Chen was in a state of mental disorder at the time of the crime."
The house where Mr. and Mrs. Chen once lived on VALLEY WAY in Santa Clara. Pictures provided by interface news interviewees
The judge said that if you plead on the grounds of mental illness, you may be locked up in a mental hospital for life. Chen said through his translator: "I understand." It is reported that the next court hearing is tentatively scheduled for November 18.
Two years and nine months have passed since this trial took place. On January 16, 2024, the police in Santa Clara County, California, USA received a report that a murder had occurred at Chen’s home, and the victim was his wife Yu. According to the police report, Chen was suspected of beating his wife to death at home. The couple both work for Google and have been married less than two years. The case has attracted widespread attention in China and the United States.
Prosecution documents pointed out that Chen’s crimes involved serious violence and threats of serious bodily harm, showing his “highly cruel, vicious or callous behavior.” If found guilty, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In June 2024, Chen's attorney Schroeder stated that he would defend Chen's innocence and said that he had received a medical record about Chen from China. Later, the case was postponed several times, and the defendant applied for postponement multiple times on the grounds that the medical records had not been translated.
On June 25 last year, the case held a preliminary hearing. The trial results showed that the reason why Chen killed his wife was suspected of emotional dispute. Chen's ex-girlfriend Jiang testified in this trial that on the afternoon of January 15, 2024, the day before the murder, Jiang discovered that Yu had edited a message on the diary in the early morning to say "hate Jiang", and accused Chen of wearing clothes given by her and meeting Jiang on the eve of their wedding anniversary. Yu pointed out that Jiang and Chen should no longer contact each other. On the night of the 15th, a fierce conflict broke out between Chen and his wife, and the crime occurred the next day.
In addition, the prosecutor pointed out that Jiang once told the police that Chen did not want to divorce because he was worried about losing finances and reputation, and needed to have a record and a way out. The two met when they were 5 years old. She had never noticed that Chen had mental health problems, but believed that Chen would choose to remain silent when he was angry.
The judge ruled at the time that the three-day preliminary hearing showed that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to support the murder case. The case will enter formal trial proceedings. Prosecutor Gadberg said Chen was charged with murder and the level of conviction would be determined by the jury. On October 12, 2026, the jury trial of the "Google Engineer Murdering His Wife" officially began.
Public information shows that Chen and Yu both graduated from Tsinghua University in 2018 with a degree in electronic information engineering. They later went to the University of California, San Diego to study for a master's degree and received a master's degree in computer science. In March 2020, Chen became a software engineer at Google. In June of the following year, Yu also joined Google as a software engineer. In April 2023, the two purchased property at 714 Valley Road in Santa Clara County for $2.05 million. After the incident, the property was sold in May 2024 for $2.32 million.
It is worth noting that the year the two purchased the property coincided with Google's major layoffs. In January 2023, Google CEO Pichai announced in a letter to employees that he would lay off approximately 12,000 people worldwide. According to media reports at the time, the layoffs were the largest in the company's history, accounting for approximately 6% of its global workforce. In the following years, the company continued to slightly optimize its personnel structure, and workplace uneasiness continued to spread. Some analysts once believed that Chen's murder of his wife may be related to the pressure caused by the company's layoffs, but later some media falsified this motive.
However, Google's layoffs in recent years have indeed put great pressure on many employees. On July 18 this year, Global Network quoted foreign media reports that a large-scale employee rights rally broke out at Google. More than 100 employees gathered at the California headquarters to protest and submitted a petition signed by 4,500 employees, forcing the company to improve layoff protection and workplace systems to alleviate the unemployment anxiety of all employees.
The petition clarifies four core demands: employees demand the implementation of standardized layoff and severance protections, open voluntary resignation channels before compulsory layoffs, cancel the involution of mandatory distribution performance ratings, and allow employees to apply for severance compensation in the form of extended paid leave. It is reported that this appeal has been launched in early 2025, but has never been taken seriously by the company before.
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