Grand jury indicts accused mass shooter
Chunli Zhao has initial court appearance to face seven counts of first-degree murder
REDWOOD CITY >> A man accused of killing seven coworkers and injuring an eighth person one year ago in Half Moon Bay has been indicted by a San Mateo County criminal grand jury.
Chunli Zhao, 66, was briefly in court Tuesday — the anniversary of the workplace shooting — on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder, the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office said. His arraignment on the grand jury charges was continued until Feb. 29.
In addition, Zhao is charged with the special circumstance allegation of multiple murder.
The same charges were alleged in a felony complaint filed on Jan. 25, 2023. The indictment, however, supersedes the complaint and negates the need for a preliminary hearing, skipping one step in the process and advancing the case.
The preliminary hearing was supposed to take place in December, but Zhao's legal team said it needed more time, District Attorney
Steve Wagstaffe told the Bay Area News Group in an interview. As a result, the hearing was moved to March 18.
Prosecutors went to the grand jury last week to “move the case along,” Wagstaffe said.
“Sometimes you go to a grand jury so you can add charges. This is the identical set of charges,” Wagstaffe said. “The victims' families deserve to have this move along.”
Zhao's attorneys, Jonathan McDougall and Eric Hove, did not return calls and emails Monday seeking comment on the grand jury indictment.
Zhao, who pleaded not guilty to the original charges, has been in custody since the shooting.
Prosecutors say Zhao killed four workers and severely wounded a fifth at California Terra Garden, a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay where he lived and worked for seven years, most recently as a forklift driver. The violence appeared to stem from a workplace grudge, according to authorities — one triggered by a $100 equipment bill from his boss for damage to heavy construction equipment.
Moments before opening fire, Zhao vented his frustrations at the supervisor and a co-worker whom Zhao blamed for a collision between his forklift and a bulldozer, prosecutors allege. After the confrontation, he allegedly shot the supervisor and the coworker, along with the coworker's wife and two others at the farm.
Prosecutors suspect Zhao continued his shooting spree at Concord Farms, another mushroom farm across town. There, investigators say he killed a former assistant manager whom he felt wronged by, as well as another couple.
The shooting illuminated deep concerns about living conditions among migrant workers living on farms across San Mateo County. County and state officials have described the workers' dwellings at California Terra Garden as “deplorable,” with families living in shacks with leaky roofs and no running water or kitchens.
A subsequent Bay Area News Group investigation found that laws meant to ensure livable farmworker housing often went unenforced in San Mateo County, allowing farm owners to neglect their struggling workforce, including the shooter and his victims.
After the shooting, California Terra Garden announced plans to spend the next 12 months building new permanent housing for its workers on its property along Highway 92. That promise remains unfulfilled; though the temporary housing has been condemned or vacated, the permanent housing has still not been built.