Freehold Borough Double-Homicide Case Concludes with Guilty Verdict

In an extremely serious case involving two men charged with the armed robbery and murders of two Freehold Borough residents, one of the defendants pleaded guilty in January of 2014, subsequently testifying against his co-defendant, who was recently convicted of the charges.

Monmouth County prosecutors accused Zeng Liang Chen and Dong Biao Lin of collaborating in the murder of 39-year-old Freehold Borough resident Yao Chen and his sister Yun Juan Chen, also of Freehold. The case began at approximately 5:00 p.m. on June 16, 2010, when police responded to a call notifying them of an injured man on South Street. The victim, Yao Chen, was still alive at the time, but suffering from numerous knife wounds. He died shortly thereafter at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune.

A search of Chen’s home revealed yet another body, that of his sister, 28-year-old Yun Juan Chen. Upon further investigation, authorities determined that two New York residents—Dong Biao Lin and Zeng Liang Chen—had committed armed robbery in the home earlier that day, murdering the two victims during the commission of the crime. Dong Biao Lin and Zeng Liang Chen were subsequently charged with a myriad of crimes including murder and felony murder.

As the case progressed, Dong Biao Lin accepted a plea agreement from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, which required him to plead guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree felony murder, in addition to testifying on behalf of the State during Zeng Liang Chen’s trial. The conclusion of Chen’s trial recently resulted in multiple guilty verdicts, as he was convicted of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree felony murder, first-degree armed robbery, second-degree armed burglary, second-degree conspiracy to commit armed burglary and third-degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

Considering the egregiousness of the aforementioned crimes, Chen may be required to serve a life-long term of imprisonment when he appears in Monmouth County Superior Court for sentencing on May 5th. Lin, on the other hand, could be sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole upon completion of 85 percent of his sentence per the terms of New Jersey’s “No Early Release Act” (NERA).

For more information related to this case, view the following article: New York man found guilty in grisly double murder of Freehold siblings