(Reuters) -A 66-year-old immigrant farm worker accused of killing seven co-workers in a mass shooting last month near San Francisco pleaded not guilty on Thursday to premeditated murder charges, Courthouse News reported.
Chunli Zhao, a Chinese citizen and lone suspect in the Jan. 23 massacre at two mushroom farms in the seaside town of Half Moon Bay, entered his plea to all charges through an interpreter in San Mateo County Superior Court in nearby Redwood City, according to Courthouse News.
The judge set the next hearing in the case for May 3, Courthouse News said.
Zhao was charged with seven counts of premeditated murder and a single count of attempted murder in a 10-page criminal complaint that also alleges “special circumstances,” accusing Zhao of “personally and intentionally” shooting to kill.
Under California law, defendants convicted of murder with “special circumstances” can be eligible for the death penalty, though Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. The state has not put a condemned inmate to death since 2006.
Authorities have said a clear motive for the killing, the second of back-to-back deadly gun rampages in California in which a total of 18 victims were slain, remains undetermined.
Zhao had been employed by one of the growers, Mountain Mushroom Farm, and had resided at the property along with some other employees, according to its owners.
Authorities said early evidence indicated the bloodshed stemmed from a workplace grievance. The second crime scene, Concord Farms, is about a mile away from Mountain Mushroom.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los AngelesEditing by Alistair Bell)
