A Tarzana man due in court on Monday, July 14, in connection with the 2023 killings of his wife and her parents was found dead in custody, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.
A spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Samuel Haskell, 37, committed suicide.
Haskell was scheduled to be in court on Monday to have a date set for a preliminary hearing, a proceeding when a judge determines if enough evidence exists for the case to go to trial, according to court records.
Instead, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench dismissed the case against him, DA spokesman Greg Risling said.
Deputies at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, near downtown Los Angeles, found Haskell’s body about 4:20 a.m. Saturday morning, Lt. Michael Modica said on Monday. The department declined to comment further and deferred questions to the Medical Examiner’s office, which would officially determine the manner of death.
Haskell was charged in November 2023 with three counts of murder in the deaths of his wife and her parents.
Police said they had determined Haskell paid day laborers on Nov. 7 that year to remove trash bags from his home. After discovering a torso in one of them, the day laborers returned to the home with the bags and the money.
The day laborers told Los Angeles police what they saw and officers went to investigate Haskell’s home, but they did not find any bags. The next morning, a homeless man told police he found a torso in a garbage bag inside a dumpster in Encino.
Haskell was arrested and charged.
The body parts were identified by the Medical Examiner’s Office to be those of Haskell’s wife, 37-year-old Mei Haskell.
The bodies of her parents, Gaoshan Li, 72, and Yanxiang Wang, 64, have not been found.
All three victims lived with Haskell in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana along with the couple’s three children, police said.
Haskell’s attorney, Joseph A. Weimortz Jr., put out a statement on Monday saying Haskell was willing to enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors and wanted to protect his children.
“My client was not afraid of prison, but he was afraid of an even larger media spectacle,” Weimortz said. “He was not afraid for himself, he was afraid for his boys. He was afraid that every photo taken, every word written, would be a permanent scar his children would have to live with.
“He was afraid that every gory, salacious detail, regardless of its truth or falsity, would be used for public entertainment,” he continued. “In order to avoid more media exposure, he was willing to (plead).
“My client’s acts were not acts of cowardice or lunacy,” the attorney said. “Ultimately, my client was even willing to take his own life, believing that it would end this terrible chaos.”
Said District Attorney Nathan Hochman, in a statement: “Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he’s been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice. This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know. A family that has been dealing with unimaginable loss now has been robbed of their chance to face him, hold him accountable for his barbaric actions and openly share their grief and their cherished memories of their loved ones.”
Haskell was allegedly observed and recorded on video throwing a large garbage bag into a trash bin in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard the same day, and someone who was looking through the trash bin the next day found a beheaded torso — subsequently determined to be Haskell’s wife — in a trash bag, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Haskell was also allegedly captured on surveillance video transferring additional black plastic bags from a Tesla to a rented SUV that he drove away and in which Los Angeles police found a blood-encrusted, military-style knife that authorities said matched DNA from the three victims, and a loaded .357-revolver that contained bloodstains that DNA analysis determined matched the genetic profiles of his wife and her stepfather, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The remains of his in-laws — who Haskell, his wife and the couple’s three young children lived with in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace — have never been recovered.
Police recovered eight black, plastic trash bags filled with items including bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood, multiple pairs of disposable gloves and canes belonging to his in-laws in the garage and backyard of the family home on Nov. 8, 2023. Subsequent DNA testing of blood found on some of the items as well as inside the home matched DNA from all three victims, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators who analyzed the defendant’s cellphone records determined that Haskell had been having an affair with a 27-year- old woman, and that he had allegedly told her that his children would soon be living with his parents, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Los Angeles police said the children were placed in the care of family members after Haskell was arrested. He had remained behind bars since then.
Several of Mei Haskell’s friends were in court for Monday’s brief hearing when the defendant’s death was announced.
Haskell was the son of noted Hollywood producer and agent Sam Haskell, who represented Kathie Lee Gifford, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, George Clooney and others.
Staff writer Ruby Gonzales and City News Service contributed to this report.
