Samuel Haskell Jr., the son of Emmy-winning producer and former William Morris agent Sam Haskell, who was accused of killing and dismembering his wife and in-laws, died by suicide in his jail cell on Saturday. He was 37.
The younger Haskell’s death comes days before he was set to face a judge and answer for the alleged triple murder, the Los Angeles district attorney announced today.
Samuel Haskell Jr., who was charged in late 2023 with the murders of his wife, Mei Haskell, and her parents, Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li, was found dead in his cell at Twin Towers downtown jail after 4 a.m. on Saturday. Haskell was seen wearing a suicide smock while attending his most recent court hearing, NBC News Los Angeles reported, and was under “moderate moderation” for self-harm in the jail.
“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 on Monday, calling the 37-year-old’s death by suicide his “last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know.”
Haskell had been charged with three counts of murder as well as the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. Haskell was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole; Hochman added that the “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.”
The L.A. District Attorney’s office said in its press release that it had planned to present evidence at Haskell’s preliminary hearing stating that on or around Nov. 6, 2023, Haskell had murdered and decapitated Mei Li Haskell, 37 and murdered her mother, 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li, 71, in a Tarzana home. The D.A.’s office alleges that he then paid $500 to several day laborers to take away heavy black plastic trash bags from the home he shared with the victims. After hauling the bags away, the laborers looked inside and found body parts; they immediately returned the bags to Haskell, took a photo of him and alerted the police, according to the D.A.’s office.
Haskell was caught on camera dumping one of the black bags into a trash dumpster in Encino that same day and later moving bags from a Tesla registered to his wife into a rented SUV, the office said, adding that the Tesla was recovered at this location, which is near an Airbnb he was renting and housing his three children. On Nov. 8, a torso was found inside one of the bags and, the D.A. says, determined to be that of Mei Li Haskell by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, via kinship analysis.
Haaskell was arrested on Nov. 8 while driving the SUV — which was rented on Nov. 3, days before the murders were believed to have occurred. Evidence that the D.A.’s office said it planned to submit to the court included a Home Depot receipt dated Oct. 20, 2023, found in Haskell’s wallet, which included the purchase of plywood, canopy, moisture barrier, coveralls and diamond-saw blades. Los Angeles police reported finding a .357 loaded revolver inside a holster inside the rented SUV along with 32 rounds of live ammunition, a blood-encrusted military-style knife, a headlamp and firearm sight and passports for himself, his wife and their children.
At the family home, police said they found “eight black plastic trash bags filled with bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, diamond-saw blades, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood, multiple pairs of disposable gloves and canes belonging to Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li,” whose remains, according to the D.A.’s press release, still have not been discovered. DNA testing of blood found on some of the items matched victim DNA.
The D.A. said that police reported having learned that Haskell had been having an affair with a 27-year-old woman and had told her just before the murders took place that his children would “soon be living with his parents.” On the same day that Haskell rented the SUV, he had asked the woman to accompany him on a trip to Japan and had purchased her a ticket to come there later in November.
Haskell had pleaded not guilty to the murders with special circumstances charges and faced life without the possibility of parole if convicted on any of the three counts with which he was charged.
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