HALF MOON BAY — Two years after seven farmworkers lost their lives when a disgruntled employee allegedly went on a rampage through two local farms, the victims’ families and the survivors continue to wait for the conclusion of lawsuits seeking compensation — and for the shooter to be tried.

Though many farmworkers and families have received at least some compensation following the incident through an investigation by the Department of Justice, the alleged shooter’s case is in its early stages. Several civil lawsuits remain undecided, leaving workers in flux as they await justice.

“This murder was such a tragedy and hurt us really badly, and we are still left wondering what has happened to the murderer,” said Jun Chen, 55, a worker at Concord Farms who was there on the day of the shooting. He spoke in Mandarin through an interpreter Friday at a news conference called to bring attention to the case.

The suspect, 67-year-old Chunli Zhao, is bound for trial after a grand jury indicted him early last year on a slew of murder charges in the January 2023 shooting spree. No trial date has been set. Zhao, who has pleaded not guilty, remains held at the San Mateo County jail and is due back in court on April 29.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe is expected to decide by then whether to pursue the death penalty against Zhao.

In the meantime, some victims have been awarded compensation for unpaid overtime hours that were exposed in the wake of the shooting. Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor reached settlements with the two farms involved in the shooting, Concord Farms Inc. and California Terra Garden Inc., who were accused of violating both the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The settlements paid out $450,000 in back wages and damages to dozens of employees.

That’s in addition to $167,000 in fines levied against the two farms in June 2023 by California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. It hit California Terra Garden with 22 violations and $113,800 in penalties for health and safety violations, while Concord Farms — where the killing spree ended — was fined $51,770 for 19 violations.

Employees homes at California Terra Garden in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. The structure where mass shooting suspect Chunli Zhao, 66, allegedly lived with his wife, can be seen at right center, with blue roof. Zhao was booked on seven counts of murder after the Jan. 23 mass shooting. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group) 

Some of the families of those killed in the shootings are also pursuing their own suits against the company, seeking damages over wrongful death that they said came about from negligent ownership and unsafe working conditions.

In April, the families of Pedro Romero Perez, who was shot five times by Zhao and permanently disabled, and his brother Jose Romero Perez, who died, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against California Terra Garden and its owner, Xianmin Guan, alleging that he failed to adequately respond to previous violent incidents and take steps that could have prevented the shooting.

This month, the Perez brothers’ lawyers refiled the case in court, taking aim at not only California Terra Garden but also seven other LLCs which they allege operate as one single company called Forest Mushroom Food Inc., which also uses the name “Guan’s Mushrooms.”

Pedro Romero Perez, left, was wounded and Jose Romero Perez, 38, right, was killed at California Terra Garden during a workplace shooting in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 23, 2023. Chunli Zhao, 66, of Half Moon Bay, the suspect in the shooting that killed seven people and injured an eighth, was arrested the same day in a sheriff’s substation parking lot as he sat inside his car. (photo courtesy Perez family) 

“The assets of those other sister entities should be used to satisfy any judgment or verdict if there is one in favor of the victims of the shooting,” said the Perez brothers’ attorney Duffy Magilligan. “In order to get them adequate compensation, we want to make sure that there’s no attempt to move assets out of the California Terra Gardens and into one of these sister organizations.”

The lawsuit alleges that Guan’s Mushrooms was the “nerve center” and “overarching controller” of the Half Moon Bay facility and others in California and on the East Coast, according to court documents. The lawsuit also cites previous instances of violence among employees living in farmworker housing that owners did nothing about, including when a tenant attempted to shoot another tenant in 2022.

Despite Zhao’s documented past of violence, including an assault against a co-worker just days before the shooting, Guan did not take any measures to ensure the safety of their employees, the lawyers allege.

Gruoo Media Luna founder Hernan Hernandez, right, and farmworker and survivor Pedro Romero Perez perform a song dedicated to the late seven farmworkers during the second anniversary of the mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. A coworker critically shot Romero while his brother, Jose Romero Perez, and five other colleagues were killed by the same suspect at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) 

A person answering the phone Friday at a listed number for Guan’s Mushrooms would not offer a comment.

Some workers at Concord Farms, the other farm targeted by Zhao, have received compensation. Jinsheng Liu, who worked at Concord Farms, has so far been awarded $33,000 in benefits from his employer to pay for intensive psychological treatment in addition to back pay in the Department of Justice case.

Liu’s lawyer George Surmaitis said that a barrier to compensation has been the lack of trust immigrant communities have in services and the lack of understanding that can come from cultural differences.

“There are so many people and agencies coming at them, so there’s this mistrust,” Surmaitis said. “To some extent, they don’t even want benefits, because they don’t understand that they’re entitled to it.”

Juan Flores-Lopez, who manages the farm at California Terra Garden, said he doesn’t know of any co-workers who have brought suits against the company.

“I think that the workers who were here — we should get some sort of compensation,” he said.

Staff writer Jakob Rodgers contributed to this report.