Job was not for ‘floor installation’, but to murder Krupaben Patel.
By Raif Karerat
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WASHINGTON, DC: Details have begun to seep out in the case of two Indian American men in Tennessee who stand accused of trying to facilitate the death of one of their wives two years ago, as the man they tried to hire took the stand Monday.
Prosecutors allege cousins Pratikkumar Patel and Kalpesh Patel conspired to solicit and arrange the murder of Krupaben Patel, the wife of Pratikkumar Patel, in Rutherford County in fall 2013.
Construction worker Chris Robinson testified Monday the Patel cousins asked him to find someone to commit the murder.
Robinson told the Rutherford County jury that defendant Kalpesh Patel, whom he once worked for as a handyman, arranged a meeting to discuss work that Robinson thought would be cabinet or floor installation.
“But it wasn’t work on the store,” Robinson said. “He was asking about having [Pratikkumar Patel’s] wife killed.”
According to the Daily News Journal:
Robinson said in court that the defendants wanted him to hire someone to kill the wife at her Gallatin home as soon as possible and would pay the murderer $50,000.
He later met with Pratikkumar Patel in the parking lot of the Sam’s Club store in Murfreesboro, where Robinson saw a picture of the alleged victim and wrote down additional details about the proposed slaying, he said.
He pointed out his truck and the two vans driven by the defendants in a surveillance tape shown to the jury.
Robinson testified he also went to Almaville Market later that day where Kalpesh Patel gave him a $15,000 down payment connected to the plot.
Robinson was adamant that he agreed to help the Patel brothers only to buy time time for the intended victim and make sure the assassination plot would never transpire.
“I was never going to do anything like this,” Robinson said. “I knew I needed to get help, but I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a joke before I called anybody.”
Sarah Davis, an assistant district attorney general, stated that Pratikkumar Patel wanted to get out of an arranged marriage with his wife but had religious objections to a divorce. Prosecutors intend to call the woman that Pratikkumar Patel allegedly had an affair with to the stand and the insurance agent who helped arrange a $6 million life insurance policy for Patel’s wife.
“The only way he could get out was for his wife to die,” Davis told the jury.
The Patels’ attorney, Ed Yarbrough, argued the charges should not stand because no one was hired to carry out the hit; he claimed the Patels needed to arrange for the actual murder to occur to be guilty of the charges against them.