REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (CN) — The man accused of killing seven people at mushroom farms in the coastal Northern California city of Half Moon Bay pleaded not guilty for the second time on Thursday, waiving his right to a speedy trial on charges in the 2023 shootings.
Chunli Zhao, 67, was charged last January with seven counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in back-to-back shootings at two mushroom farms in the small agricultural enclave about 30 miles south of San Francisco. He is being held without bail.
Zhao’s arraignment on a grand jury indictment before Judge Elizabeth Lee in San Mateo County Superior Court took place after a new superseding indictment. He pleaded not guilty in February 2023, and entered the same plea Thursday in person.
San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen M. Wagstaffe’s office asked for time to review the indictment. The parties will return to court April 19 ahead of a pretrial conference.
In a phone call following the hearing, Wagstaffe said his office and Zhao's defense counsel remain under Lee's gag order and cannot comment on the criminal proceedings.
Wagstaffe said that San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Sean Dabel, who was previously also assigned to the case, has recused himself because of his relationship to the case's lead prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Josh Keckley.
“Judges do this when they’re very close to attorneys,” Wagstaffe said. “It’s for the appearances of being impartial.”
The shootings, which shook Half Moon Bay in January 2023, left seven people dead and another seriously wounded at California Terra Garden, previously known as Mountain Mushroom Farm, and nearby Concord Farms. It was California’s third mass shooting in eight days in 2023, and the worst in San Mateo County’s history, officials said.
The majority of farmworkers in the area are Latinos but the garden was one of the few that employed Asian workers, according to a farmworker advocacy group based in the town.
Zhao is from China and has lived in the United States for at least a dozen years. In 2013, he was accused of threatening to split a coworker’s head open with a knife and separately tried to suffocate the man with a pillow, according to court documents. Authorities believe Zhao acted alone.
Wagstaffe's charges against Zhao include additional claims that could result in the death penalty or life in prison without parole, though Governor Gavin Newsom has issued a moratorium on executions and the state hasn't executed anyone since 2006.
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