Man pleads not guilty to killing wife, her parents then putting body parts in trash

LOS ANGELES — A Hollywood executive’s son entered a plea Friday in connection with the murder of his wife and her parents in Los Angeles.

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Samuel Bond Haskell IV, 35, on Friday pleaded not guilty to murder, according to The Associated Press. He has been charged with three counts of murder with special circumstances of committing multiple murders.

If Haskell is convicted, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole, the AP reported.

He is accused of killing his wife, Mei Haskell, 37; her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64; and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li, 72, in November, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell, an Emmy-winning producer, the AP reported. Sam Haskell is a former executive at the William Morris talent agency.

Investigators claim Haskell tried to dispose of human remains on Nov. 7 by hiring day laborers to remove the bags from his house, according to the Times. The day laborer said that he paid them $500 at told them that the bags were filled with rocks. The workers said, “the bags felt soggy and soft, like meat.”

“One of the laborers opened one of the bags and allegedly observed human body parts,” the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a November statement obtained by the AP.

The workers tried to return the money and went to the police. KNBC reported that by the time officers arrived at his house, the bags were no longer there.

The following day, a homeless man reportedly found a duffel bag that had a human torso inside in a dumpster in Tarzana, the Times reported. Surveillance video in the area showed a man removing the bag from his car and then dumping it.

The Los Angeles County coroner identified the torso as having belonged to Mei Haskell. According to the AP, her parents’ remains have not been found.

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