Grand jury indicts farmworker charged in Northern California mass shootings

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A farmworker charged with killing seven people last year in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms was indicted by a grand jury in an effort by prosecutors to move the case along. San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe says Chunli Zhao was indicted on seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder in the Jan. 23, 2023, killings in Half Moon Bay. He pleaded not guilty last February. The case had dragged on, and Wagstaffe says the grand jury indictment supersedes the criminal complaint and bypasses the need for a preliminary hearing, skipping one step in the legal process.