SAN FRANCISCO– A farm worker who killed seven people in back-to-back shootings at two mushroom farms in Northern California last year was indicted by a grand jury in an effort by prosecutors to move forward with the case, authorities said.
Chunli Zhao was scheduled to be arraigned in court Tuesday on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, but his arraignment was continued until Feb. 29, San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said in an email .
Zhao was charged last year with the murders of seven people on January 23, 2023 in Half Moon Bay. He pleaded not guilty last February. But the case has dragged on, with a preliminary hearing not held until March that has now been lifted, Wagstaffe said.
The grand jury indictment replaces the criminal complaint and bypasses the need for a preliminary hearing, skipping a step in the legal process and advancing the case, he said.
“I know that long delays have a very negative impact on the victims’ families, and we try to move cases forward if the case seems to be dragging on. That’s why we tried to file the Grand Jury Indictment,” Wagstaffe said.
The next step is for Zhao to enter a plea for the grand jury indictment at the February hearing, he said.
Prosecutors say Zhao started the shooting at California Terra Garden after his supervisor there demanded he pay a $100 repair bill for his forklift after he was involved in a crash with a co-worker’s bulldozer. They say he killed four co-workers and injured another before driving to Concord Farms, a mushroom farm where he was fired in 2015. There he shot and killed three former colleagues.
Zhao admitted to the shootings during a media interview in prison days after the killings, telling KNTV-TV that he was bullied and worked long hours on the farms.
The murders shed light on the substandard housing the farms provided to their workers. After the shooting, San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller visited the housing at California Terra Garden, where some employees lived with their families, and described it as “deplorable” and “heartbreaking.”
Muller, who represents Half Moon Bay and other agricultural towns, posted photos on social media of a shipping container and sheds being used as homes.
The owners of Terra Garden agreed to build new permanent housing on a separate part of the farm for the employees and their families and provide them with affordable housing for the year it would take to build it. But a year after the shooting, no permanent homes have been built, the Mercury News reported.