Jailall Singh was clobbered to death in New York.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A 67 year-old man from New York City will now most likely spend the rest of his life behind bars for beating his nursing home roommate, an Indian American, to death over a banal argument.
Thomas Yarnavik was sentenced to a 17-year jail sentence by the Bronx Supreme Court on Tuesday, for beating his former roommate Jailall Singh to death during an argument in October of last year. The argument apparently stemmed from a curtain separating the two men’s respective areas of the room, which prompted Yarnavick to get so enraged that he took the metal footrest off of a wheelchair and clobbered Singh (71) to death.
Singh was hit repeatedly on the head with the footrest, causing blunt force trauma that ultimately resulted in his death. The actual quarrel escalated around 1:00 AM in the early morning hours of October 30. Singh was rushed by first responders to the local St. John’s Hospital, but succumbed to his injuries at 2:43 AM, reported the New York Daily News at the time of the murder.
Staff became aware of the murder when they found the blood-stained footrest in a laundry hamper. Yarnavick was arrested shortly thereafter, and legal proceedings began relatively quickly. He has been held without bail since his initial arraignment in November, and pleaded guilty to a single charge of first-degree manslaughter in May.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who prosecuted the case against Yarnavick, lamented that the crime was “a particularly senseless and disturbing killing of a man living out his days at a nursing facility.”
The nursing home where the incident took place is the Ocean Promenade Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Rockaway Park in Queens. Nursing home management allegedly was not aware of any prior disagreements or existing animosity between the two men.
Yarnavick reportedly has a criminal past, but the details of his previous arrests have been sealed by the police. Both he and Singh came to the nursing home from Queens.