Vishnu Phagoo is still in jail, though, for another crime.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Vishnu Phagoo, a 37 year-old Jersey City man accused of having stabbed his sister to death nearly four years ago, was acquitted of murder charges by a jury of his peers on Tuesday.
Phagoo was alleged to have killed his sister, Shrimatie Parasram (45) on the morning of September 16, 2010. Parasram was found by her 16 year-old daughter later that afternoon, when she returned from school, face-down in a pool of blood with multiple stab wounds. Police later determined that she was stabbed 107 times, with several stabs having punctured vital internal organs.
Phagoo was arrested on February 1, 2011, and was subsequently charged with murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose; Phagoo pleaded “not guilty” to all charges, sending the case to trial last week.
Ultimately, Phagoo’s guilt or innocence came down to when his sister was dying her hair on the day she was murdered. The Jersey Journal reports that the crime scene indicated Parasram was in the midst of dying her hair when she was killed, but Phagoo said that when he arrived at her house on the morning of September 16, at around 9:15 AM, she was on the phone talking to her sister.
Initially, Parasram’s sister told prosecutors that Parasram said she was dying her hair while she was on the phone. However, the sister eventually revealed, under cross-examination, that her sister was not dying her hair while on the phone, and that she only talked about dying her hair later on.
The discrepancy means that the prosecution could not establish a firm timeline of events leading up to Parasram’s death, and therefore could not definitively place Phagoo at the scene of the crime when it supposedly took place. Additionally, no physical evidence of any kind was presented during the trial.
As a result, he was acquitted after less than four hours of jury deliberations.
However, Phagoo will still remain in jail because of his connection in an arson incident in 2009. He is accused of having attempted to burn down a relative’s house in Jersey City, and has not been able to post bail.