REDWOOD CITY — The man accused of gunning down seven people last year at two Half Moon Bay mushroom farms once again pleaded not guilty Thursday to a slew of murder charges in the largest mass shooting in San Mateo County’s history.
Chunli Zhao, 67, spoke little during the brief hearing, which came a month after a San Mateo County grand jury indicted him in the January 2023 workplace massacre. Along with seven murder charges, Zhao faces a charge of attempted murder, to which he also pleaded not guilty.
The indictment — which superseded charges filed just days after the shooting spree — was sought as a way to “move the case along” after delays affected the timing of a key evidentiary hearing, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. As a result of the indictment, no such preliminary hearing is needed and the case is now bound for trial.
Zhao was ordered to appear again in court for a hearing April 19.
“The victims’ families deserve to have this move along,” said Wagstaffe, shortly after the indictment last month.
Wearing a red jail outfit with an orange long-sleeved undershirt, Zhao stood quietly during the hearing with his head bowed and his arms folded in front of him. He wore a blue face mask and black headphones, into which a Mandarin interpreter translated the court’s proceedings.
He only said the word “yes” in Mandarin, when asked whether he understood and agreed with his attorney’s decision to waive his right to a speedy trial.
Zhao had pleaded not guilty last year to the original charges and has been in custody since surrendering to authorities hours after the mass shooting. He remains held in the San Mateo County jail without bail.
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 co-worker’s wife and two others at the farm.
Prosecutors contend that Zhao then 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.
The hearing was presided over by Judge Elizabeth Lee, after a previous judge, Sean Dabel, recused himself. Dabel was a former prosecutor at the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office and maintains close ties with the prosecutor overseeing Zhao’s case, Joshua Stauffer, according to Wagstaffe.
