The man accused of murdering his wife and in-laws, and dumping the partial remains of his wife in a trash bin in Encino, pleaded not guilty Friday.
Samuel Bond Haskell was ordered held with no bail, and he is scheduled to return to court in February when a date will be set for a preliminary hearing.
Haskell, 35, is charged with 3 counts of murder for the deaths of his wife, Mei Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li.
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Last month, the LA County Coroner's office, through DNA comparisons, was able to confirm that the remains found in Encino were that of Mei Haskell, but additional remains have not been found to date.
The couple's three elementary school-age children were placed in protective custody in November.
At Friday's court appearance at the Clara Shortridge Foltz justice center in downtown LA, Haskell was again dressed in a special jail smock designed to prevent suicides, which fell off or was removed during the arraignment, leaving him shirtless.
The I-Team reported in November that a group of day laborers said Samuel Haskell hired them to move trash bags from his home in Tarzana, but returned the bags after they saw what looked like part of a human body inside.
“When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren't rocks,” one of the workers said in Spanish.
In December, YanQing Wang, the only relative of Mei Haskell and her parents living in the United States, told NBC LA that he's had nightmares about what happened to his family, and can't understand how the three are still considered missing.
“I’m very confused, first the news reported that Sam is being charged with the murder, but the police never give me an answer as whereabout are my sister and my brother-in-law,” Wang said.
Mei Haskell murder and disappearance
Samuel Haskell was arrested by LAPD detectives at a shopping center several hours after the remains were discovered on Nov. 8 in Encino.
Security video appeared to show a person moving a large trash bag from the trunk of a white Tesla sedan into the trash bin.
Detectives spent many hours examining the Haskell home on Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana, where authorities said they discovered evidence of a murder and possible dismemberment.
