Alan Wang must serve the full sentence for killing Hongyan Yang after finding messages from another man on her phone.

WHEATON, Ill. — A Naperville man convicted of fatally beating his wife after finding text messages from another man on her phone has been sentenced to 38 years in an Illinois prison, closing the trial-court phase of a murder case that began more than six years ago.

DuPage County Judge Ann Celine O’Hallaren Walsh imposed the sentence on Alan Wang, 62, after finding him guilty of first-degree murder in October 2025. The verdict followed a four-day bench trial, meaning the judge rather than a jury decided the case. Prosecutors said Wang repeatedly kicked his wife, 35-year-old Hongyan Yang, during an attack in the couple’s bedroom on March 7, 2020. Yang was taken to a hospital the following day and pronounced dead. Wang will be required to serve 100% of the 38-year term before becoming eligible for parole, according to the DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.

The sentence represents the final major decision in a prosecution that changed sharply during its opening months. Wang was first charged with aggravated domestic battery, a charge tied to the alleged assault rather than Yang’s death. An autopsy by the DuPage County coroner’s office later concluded that she died from blunt force trauma caused by an assault. Prosecutors then upgraded the case, and a grand jury indicted Wang on two counts of first-degree murder in June 2020. He was ultimately convicted of one murder count after the 2025 trial.

Authorities said the violence began during the evening of March 7, 2020, while Wang and Yang were in their bedroom at their home in the 1100 block of North Mill Street in Naperville. According to prosecutors, Wang looked through Yang’s phone and found messages from another man. He then kicked her multiple times. Public statements released by prosecutors do not provide the full contents of the messages, identify the other person or establish what the messages meant. Those details were not needed to support the central finding at trial: that Wang intentionally committed acts that caused Yang’s death.

The emergency call did not come until the next afternoon. At about 4:50 p.m. on March 8, Naperville police and fire personnel were sent to the home after a relative reported that Yang was not breathing. First responders transported her to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 5:54 p.m. The state’s attorney’s account does not identify the relative or describe what happened inside the house between the attack and the 911 call. It also does not say whether Yang received medical attention before emergency crews arrived.

Wang disputed the prosecution’s account of his intent. At trial, he claimed that he had been trying to wake Yang when he kicked her, according to reporting on the case. O’Hallaren Walsh rejected the defense and found him guilty of first-degree murder. The state’s public summaries do not provide a transcript of the judge’s findings or a detailed explanation of how she weighed Wang’s testimony against the medical evidence and other proof introduced during the trial. The verdict nevertheless established beyond a reasonable doubt that the killing met the requirements of first-degree murder under Illinois law. The medical findings played a decisive role from the start. Early reports said prosecutors alleged that the kicking caused deep bleeding in Yang’s soft tissue. After the coroner determined that blunt force trauma from the assault caused her death, the case was no longer treated only as a serious domestic battery. That conclusion connected the violence in the bedroom to Yang’s death the next day and supplied the basis for prosecutors to pursue murder charges.

Wang’s custody status also changed after the autopsy. At a March 11, 2020, bond hearing, a judge set bond at $850,000 and allowed 10% to apply. Wang posted $85,000 and was released under electronic monitoring. After the murder indictment, his bond was increased to $1.25 million on July 8, 2020. He did not secure release under the higher amount and remained in the DuPage County Jail while the case moved toward trial.

That pretrial period lasted more than five years. The killing occurred just as courts and public institutions across Illinois were entering the disruptions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s attorney’s releases do not assign a specific reason for the length of the case or provide a complete account of motions, continuances and scheduling decisions. They do establish that the four-day trial concluded Sept. 12, 2025, and that O’Hallaren Walsh announced the guilty verdict Oct. 8.

The choice of a bench trial placed responsibility for both the legal rulings and the final assessment of the evidence with O’Hallaren Walsh. Prosecutors were still required to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the same standard used in a jury trial. The judge’s verdict resolved the central disagreement between the state and Wang: whether the fatal kicking was a murderous assault or an effort to rouse an unresponsive person. By returning a first-degree murder verdict, the court accepted the state’s account and rejected Wang’s explanation.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Bob Berlin described Yang’s death as an example of the continuing toll of domestic violence. In announcing the sentence, he said 1,373 women were killed by a spouse or intimate partner in 2023, citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System. Berlin said the figure showed that significant work remained to prevent domestic violence and the most extreme outcomes associated with it.

Berlin also sought to keep the focus on Yang rather than treating the case only as a set of court dates and charges. She was 35 when she died, and prosecutors said she left surviving family members and friends. The publicly released case summaries provide little additional biographical information about her. They do not describe her work, interests or life outside the marriage. What the record does show is that her death prompted an investigation, an autopsy, a murder prosecution and a sentence that will keep Wang imprisoned for decades. The state’s attorney credited Assistant State’s Attorneys Amanda Meindl, Sara Henley and Jeff O’Boyle with prosecuting the case. The office also previously praised the Naperville Police Department for investigating Yang’s death and the coroner’s office for determining the cause. The sentencing announcement did not describe a statement from Wang, his attorneys or Yang’s relatives, and it did not say whether the court heard victim-impact testimony before imposing the 38-year term.

The sentence is substantial but not presented by prosecutors as a life term. Because Wang was 62 when it was imposed and must serve the entire term, the practical effect is that he would be about 100 years old at its completion if he receives credit only as allowed under the governing judgment. The state’s announcement did not provide a projected release date or explain how previously served time will be calculated. Any challenge to the conviction or sentence would proceed through the appellate courts, but no appeal was identified in the materials released with the sentencing announcement.

With sentencing complete, Wang remains in custody and is expected to be transferred from the county jail to the Illinois Department of Corrections. The 38-year judgment leaves the first-degree murder conviction in place and ends the principal proceedings before O’Hallaren Walsh unless the trial court is asked to address additional post-sentencing matters.

Author note: Last updated July 22, 2026.