Palm Desert resident accused of killing wife and another man re-enters not guilty pleas
A man accused of stabbing his wife and another man in what authorities called a domestic violence confrontation at a Palm Desert hotel parking lot re-entered not guilty pleas to murder charges today.
At the end of a preliminary hearing on Oct. 21, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro found there was sufficient evidence to warrant a trial for Kenny Shun Yu Wu, 34, of Palm Desert on two counts of murder.
Shun Yu Wu re-entered not guilty pleas to the charges during a post-preliminary hearing arraignment at the Larson Justice Center in Indio on Friday.
He is accused in the murder of his wife Yaying Wu, 31, also of Palm Desert, and Jesus Sanchez, 30, of Cathedral City. The victims were pronounced dead in the parking lot, where they were found by deputies from the sheriff's Palm Desert station on July 15 outside the SpringHill Suites hotel in the 72300 block of Highway 111.
Shun Yu Wu was found alive with blunt force trauma to his body and taken to a hospital. He was treated for critical injuries, then was released and arrested two days later and booked into the the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio, where he was being held without bail.
During the preliminary hearing, Sheriff's Deputy Jackson Wu (no relation to the victims or suspect) testified about a translated interview with Yaying's mother, Xuexiu Jia, from the day of the fatal incident.
According to Deputy Wu, Jia said Shun Yu Wu and Yaying were having marital problems because of Yaying's relationship with another person, and that there were multiple incidents in which he was violent toward his wife.
According to the deputy, Jia said "Kenny always said that he wanted to kill them," and that the night before the fatal incident, he was "acting so crazy as though he was having a psychotic episode."
