Half Moon Bay mass shooting suspect Chunli Zhao pleads not guilty to 7 murder counts
- Zhao Chunli, 66, is charged with murdering fellow farmworkers in California’s Half Moon Bay last month
- Zhao, a Chinese citizen, admitted to the shootings during a jailhouse media interview days after the shooting
A 66-year-old immigrant farm worker accused of murdering seven colleagues in a mass shooting last month at two mushroom-growing sites near San Francisco pleaded not guilty on Thursday to all charges, according to the San Mateo County district attorney.
Chunli Zhao, a Chinese citizen and lone suspect in the January 23 massacre in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, entered the plea himself, speaking through a Mandarin-language interpreter, during a brief court hearing in nearby Redwood City, the DA said.
The next hearing in the case was set for May 3, the district attorney, Steve Wagstaffe, confirmed to Reuters. That proceeding was scheduled to set a future date for a so-called preliminary hearing, where prosecutors present their case to persuade the judge they have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
Zhao is charged with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder in a criminal complaint that also cites “special circumstance” allegations accusing him of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.
Under California law, defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” are eligible for the death penalty, though Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not put a condemned inmate to death since 2006.
Authorities have said they have yet to establish a clear motive for the killings, the second of back-to-back deadly gun rampages in California last month in which a total of 18 victims were slain two days apart.
