UCSC Student, 20, Charged With Murdering His Mother with Scissors in Her Home

A 20-year-old University of California at Santa Cruz student was charged with murder today for allegedly fatally stabbing his 57-year-old mother with scissors at her home in Hayward on Saturday evening.

Joseph Badiali was scheduled to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court in Hayward this afternoon on the charge that he murdered Rosemary Badiali at a single-story home at 27548 La Porte Avenue shortly before 6:50 p.m. on Saturday.

Prosecutors also charged Joseph Badiali with three counts of cruelly wounding an animal for allegedly killing three Chihuahua dogs at the residence. Hayward police Officer Ryan Sprague said in a probable cause statement that a neighbor called police to report that Badiali’s grandmother had come to his door and told him that Badiali had killed his mother. The neighbor said that as he was talking to the grandmother when Badiali walked up with blood on him and admitted to the neighbor that he had killed his mother.

Sprague wrote that when he arrived at the scene he found Badiali in the middle of the street with blood on his hands, legs and shorts and he arrested him. Sprague said that when he asked Badiali where his mother was, Badiali said, “She’s gone” and when he asked for an explanation Badiali said, “She’s dead.”

Officers then searched the residence and found Rosemary Badiali lying in a pool of blood at the back of the house, according to Sprague. She was face down and had multiple stab wounds to her head, Sprague said. Hayward firefighters pronounced her dead at 7:10 p.m. on Saturday, he said. Three dead dogs were then located in the backyard, according to Sprague. They had blood coming from their heads and appeared to have suffered severe trauma, Sprague said.

Badiali graduated from Dougherty Valley High School in San Ramon, according to his Facebook page.

—By Bay City News