Man who 'killed wife and her parents' arrives in court without his shirt
A man accused of killing his wife and her parents after hiring workers to dispatch their bin-bag bodies made a bizarre appearance in court without his shirt.
Sam Haskell, 35, is charged with murdering Mei Hashel, 37, and her parents, mum Yanking Wang, 64, and dad, Gaoshan Li, 72. He was arrested after the headless torso of a woman – believed to be Mei, – was found in a rubbish bin near his office in Encino, northwest of LA, last month.
Mei's friends said she had wanted to divorce Haskell for at least four years, but feared his influential agent father Samuel Haskell III, whose clients included Dolly Parton, George Clooney, Kathie Lee Gifford, Whoopi Goldberg, and King Charles's brother, Prince Edward, would persuade courts to give him custody of their three sons, aged six, eight, and 12.
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The murder suspect is on suicide watch (Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)The heavily tattooed suspect is on suicide watch in the LAPD’s Valley Jail in Van Nuys and entered the court naked from the waist up during an arraignment hearing. The velcro straps he was wearing on the special gown came undone, which forced him to appear half-naked, according to legal experts.
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He was expected to enter a guilty or not guilty plea on the three murder charges he faces but LA Superior Court Judge Kimberley, Baker Guillemet continued the arraignment until January 12 at the request of Haskell’s new lawyer Joseph Weimortz, who has just been hired and said he needed to get to grips with the case.
The three victims the suspect is accused of killing (AP)However, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman objected to the extension, telling the court: "We’re opposed to putting this over for another six weeks." He was remanded without bail.
Prosecutors allege on the day of the murders, Haskell hired four-day workers to remove black bin bags from his home. One worker claimed he was paid $500 to remove three large bin bags - which Haskell said were filled with rocks before later pretending the body parts were 'Halloween props.'
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Bin bags were stuffed with their bodies (KTLA)"When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren't rocks,' he said, noting that the bags were soft and soggy." He and his co-workers looked inside the bags and saw "body parts, a belly button."'I was astonished. Of course, I felt bad. We had been tricked," he said. The workers quickly returned the bags and the money to Haskell's home, telling him they did not "want to be involved."
The men went to the police and informed the California Highway Patrol following the horrific discovery. According to prosecutors, later that day Haskell "was allegedly observed and photographed a short distance from his home disposing [of] a large trash bag into a dumpster in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard."
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