Sam Haskell, the son of the Hollywood super agent accused of killing his wife Mei and dismembering her body, briefly appeared bare-chested in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Friday.
The heavily tattooed 35-year-old — who is also accused of killing Mei's parents — is under suicide watch at the LAPD's Valley Jail in Van Nuys.
The Velcro straps on the special dress he was wearing came loose, causing it to slide down, a court representative explained to DailyMail.com after the hearing
Haskell was scheduled to be arraigned Friday and enter a plea to the three murder charges.
Sam Haskell appeared naked from the waist down in court Friday during a hearing for the murder of his wife and her parents
Haskell, who is now asked to enter a plea next month, is accused of dismembering his wife Mei
Sam Haskell (pictured), the son of a Hollywood hotshot of the same name, is accused of killing his wife and her parents and then dismembering them
But LA Supreme Court Judge Kimberley Baker Guillemet continued the arraignment and plea until Jan. 12 at the request of Haskell's new attorney Joseph Weimortz, who was just hired and said he needed time to familiarize himself with the case.
Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman objected to the continuation, telling the court, “We are opposed to delaying this for another six weeks.”
He was remanded to jail without bail.
Haskell, who faces the death penalty if convicted, was arrested after the decapitated torso of a woman — believed to be his Chinese-born wife Mei, 37 — was found in a dumpster near his office in Encino, northwest of LA, last month.
He was charged with Mei's murder and the murders of her parents, mother Yanking Wang, 64, and father, Gaoshan Li, 72, both of whom remain missing.
Mei's friends have told DailyMail.com that she had wanted to divorce Haskell for at least four years but feared his father, a powerful agent, would convince the court to give him custody of their three sons, aged six, eight and 12.
Prosecutors allege that Haskell hired four day laborers to remove black trash bags from his LA home the day after the murders.
One worker revealed he was paid $500 to remove three large garbage bags – adding that Haskell claimed they were filled with rocks before later pretending the body parts were 'Halloween props'.
“When we picked up the bags, we could see they weren't rocks,” he said, noting that the bags were soft and moist.”
He and his colleagues looked in the bags and inside they saw 'body parts, a belly button.'
Mei, pictured, wanted to leave Haskell but feared his powerful father would try to prevent her from seeing the couple's three children
Mei, her mother Yanking Wang, 64, and father, Gaoshan Li, 72, are all pictured. Haskell's in-laws are still missing and it is feared they were murdered by him
Police, along with Mei's parents, search the $2.5 million, six-bedroom home where the young Haskell family lived
'I was surprised. Of course I felt bad. We were cheated,” he said.
The men then took the bags and money back to Haskell's home and told him they “didn't want to be involved.”
The workers went straight to police and notified the California Highway Patrol and police.
Prosecutors said that later that day, Haskell was “allegedly observed and photographed a short distance from his home while [of] a large trash bag in a dumpster in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard.”
Haskell is the son of Samuel Haskell III, a former executive vice president and global head of television for the talent agency William Morris Endeavor.
His clients included Dolly Parton, George Clooney, Kathie Lee Gifford, Whoopi Goldberg and King Charles' brother Prince Edward. He retired in 2004 and founded Magnolia Hill Productions.
Haskell senior was also CEO of the Miss America organization from 2015 to 2017, but resigned after it emerged he had criticized a number of contestants in private emails, ridiculing one for gaining weight and describing the other as promiscuous .
Mei's friends have revealed the alleged fear she lived in for years, given the family's connections.
“May first brought up divorce when I got one in 2019,” a friend named Jenny told DailyMail.com exclusively. “I told her she could do it, but she just felt like she couldn't risk losing her boys.”
“Mei felt trapped,” says longtime friend Jenny, who asked to give only her first name for fear of reprisals from the prominent Haskell family.
'She said she couldn't leave because of the boys. She was afraid that her husband would take the children away with the help of his very wealthy and influential father.'
“She said it didn't happen. That there was no way she could divorce.
“Maybe she started it again and he snapped.”
“There was also physical abuse,” Jenny added. 'She told me he had hurt her. He had hit her.'
Jenny also claimed that Mei told her that her husband did not get along with her mother Wang and father Li.
The parents had moved to their home in Tarzana, 25 miles north of Los Angeles, about five years ago to care for the couple's three young boys.
'She said he was rude to them and ignored them. That they made him angry,” said a friend.
'They didn't speak English, but he made no effort to interact with them.
'When Mei's youngest son was born, her parents moved from China to care for the baby. They were very helpful with the children.
A bag containing a headless torso was found, stuffed into a duffel bag and thrown into a dumpster behind Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue, near a family restaurant, hair salon and two banks
The LA dumpster where a woman's dismembered torso was found before ex-Hollywood cop Samuel Haskell Snr's son was arrested for murder
“Mei has no other family here besides her parents.”
Mei's friends describe her husband as 'weird'. “He was making sudden movements with his arms and blurting out things,” said one person, who asked not to be named.
'When I first met him I immediately thought of Jeffrey Dahmer, that same eerie atmosphere. He walked very quickly with his head down, rarely looking up and never making eye contact.
'We are absolutely devastated. Mei was such a bright light and loved her children so much. She wanted to create a beautiful world for them and she did.
'Mei was the one we all went to when we needed help or advice. She was always there for us. She was always so positive. She never complained. Her boys were her everything and the boys loved her so much.”
Ironically, despite the gruesome nature of the murders he is accused of, unearthed texts from six months ago seem to show that Haskell could not bear the sight of blood and gore.
In a text message to his ex-personal trainer Troy Piedade about seeing the horror movie The Forever Purge: “He didn't like the movie because of the dismembered bodies,” Troy said.
'He (Haskell) wrote: 'Fools are really being cut to pieces in Mexico. It's hard for me to make a movie about it, I'm suffering from Purge 2 anarchy.'
Troy said he sensed something “a little off” about Haskell, whom he met almost 15 years ago. He added that he felt Sam was “very disturbed” but that he did not think his former client could be a murderer.