LOS ANGELES (Court TV) — The son of a Hollywood agent died suddenly while behind bars on charges he brutally murdered his wife and her parents.
Sam Haskell IV appears shirtless in court during a hearing. (Court TV/Pool)
Samuel Haskell IV, 35, died while in custody at a Los Angeles jail ahead of a scheduled court hearing on Monday, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office announced. Investigators said that he killed himself over the weekend while in custody.
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Haskell, the son of award-winning producer Sam Haskell, had been in custody since December, facing three counts of murder with special circumstances. Prosecutors said that on Nov. 7, 2024, Haskell hired laborers to remove plastic bags from his home filled with body parts. A torso found in a dumpster where some of the bags had been placed was identified as belonging to Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell. Mei and her parents, YanXiang Wang and Gaoshan Li, were last seen on Nov. 6. Mei’s parents lived with the couple.
“Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he’s been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know.”
Haskell had pleaded not guilty to the charges and was due to appear on Monday for a preliminary hearing to determine whether the case would move forward. Had he been convicted, Haskell faced a potential sentence of life in prison without parole.
