Suspect in deadly double stabbing in Palm Desert due in court this week

A man suspected of fatally stabbing his wife and another man in what authorities called a domestic violence confrontation at a Palm Desert hotel parking lot is behind bars.

The 34-year-old Palm Desert man was formally arrested Sunday afternoon after being treated at a hospital for what authorities described as critical injuries.

He was booked into the John J. Benoit Detention Center on suspicion of murder and was being held without bail, according to inmate records.  According to jail records, his arraignment is set for Wednesday at Larson Justice Center in Indio. He is facing two felony murder charges and other charges.

Deputies from the sheriff's Palm Desert station responded at 6:55 a.m. Friday to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon in the parking lot of the Spring Hill Suites hotel in the 72300 block of Highway 111, Sheriff's Department Sgt. Ben Ramirez said. Investigators spent over ten hours on the scene Friday.

In the parking lot, deputies found a man and a woman, who were pronounced dead at the scene within minutes of the deputies' arrival, Ramirez said. The suspect was found alive with blunt force trauma to his body and taken to a hospital.

Using video surveillance, detectives determined the deaths and the assault to be a case of domestic violence, authorities said. Late Friday night, the dead woman was identified as Yaying Wu, 31, also of Palm Desert, the suspect's wife. Police said the male victim was Jesus Sanchez, 30, of Cathedral City.

Sheriff's officials declined to provide further details, including the nature of the relationship between the deceased man and woman.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Palm Desert sheriff's station's Investigation Bureau at 760-836-1600 or Investigator Munoz with the Central Homicide Unit at 951-955-2777.