Alvin Thomas sentenced to life in prison for 2020 double murder in Chinatown

A man was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murder of two men during an attempted robbery in Chinatown in 2020.

Alvin Thomas, 25, will serve two consecutive life sentences for the murder of Huayi Bian, 36, and Weizhong Xiong, 38, on February 9, 2020, Cook County Criminal Court Judge Neera Walsh ruled Wednesday.

Thomas confronted the two men and Xiong's wife, Hong Li Yang, after they had gone out to dinner to celebrate the Chinese Lantern Festival, prosecutors said. Xiong was getting out of the passenger seat of a car as Thomas shot him multiple times, Yang testified. She heard gunshots after getting out of the driver's seat and hid under another vehicle, from where she could see her husband lying motionless on the ground, she testified.

At the time of the shooting, police said Thomas had demanded money and, while Yang complied, Bian and Xiong refused and were shot.

After the sentencing, Yang spoke to reporters through a Chinese interpreter.

"Exactly six years and two days after such a long wait, finally, justice is served, and the defendant deserves two life term sentences," she told CBS2 through the interpreter. "And finally, I can tell my late husband somewhere up there that we did it and, finally, we got justice."

Thomas had been held in jail since his arrest on the day of the shooting.