Overview
- Cook County Judge Neera Walsh imposed two consecutive life sentences on Feb. 11, 2026, closing the trial phase of the case.
- Thomas was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for an attempted robbery in a parking lot at Tan Court and Wells around 2:15 a.m. on Feb. 9, 2020.
- Authorities said Huayi Bian, 36, and Weizhong Xiong, 38, were shot after resisting while a woman with them complied and was not injured.
- Police apprehended Thomas minutes later a few blocks away in the 2200 block of South Princeton Avenue, and prosecutors said bloody footprints and a gun tied him to the scene.
- Records show Thomas was on probation for a 2018 robbery and on home electronic monitoring after a 2019 bond; Xiong’s widow called the sentence justice as Thomas’s relatives disputed that a robbery occurred.