The prosecution wasted little time getting to the point in the preliminary hearing for Pierre Haobsh, who is charged with murdering Chinese herbalist Dr. Henry Han; his wife, Jennie Yu; and their 5-year-old daughter, Emily Han, in their Goleta home on March 23, 2016. According to Santa Barbara County’s Sheriff’s Office Detective Jeffrey McDonald, on the night of the killing, Haobsh confessed to a Thousand Oaks associate named T.J. Direda that he had killed the Han family; Haobsh had been unsuccessfully trying to enlist Direda’s assistance in disposing of the three bodies.
Direda contacted law enforcement officers on March 25, notifying deputies with the Sheriff’s Office that he’d been contacted by Haobsh and giving them the gist of the call. Detectives interviewed Direda the following day. According to McDonald, Haobsh first texted Direda and then showed up at his Thousand Oaks home an hour later. “He said he needed assistance, that he had just killed three people and needed help getting rid of the bodies,” McDonald recounted under direct questioning by prosecutor Hilary Dozer.
McDonald testified that Haobsh explained he had killed Han for $20 million he believed Han possessed and that he had access to Han’s bank account via his cell phone. McDonald also testified that Haobsh described to Direda how he’d wrapped the three bodies up in plastic sheets, taped with duct tape, after shooting the victims. After putting two of the wrapped-up bodies in the trunk of his car, Haobsh told Direda, he discovered there wasn’t enough space to fit the third. That’s when he contacted Direda, who was growing marijuana and had been involved in the pornography business, as a cross-examination by Haobsh’s defense attorney, Mindi Boulet of the Public Defender’s office, revealed. As Boulet sought to pursue this line of questioning, prosecutor Dozer objected, arguing there was no relevance to the information being sought. Boulet said she wanted to show Direda’s involvement in “organized crime.” Judge Brian Hill sustained Dozer’s objections and did not allow Boulet to proceed.