Will get either death penalty or life in prison.
By Sujeet Rajan
NEW YORK: The jury on Thursday found Raghunandan Yandamuri guilty in the murder of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna and her grandmother Satyavathi Venna, 61, two years ago in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.
The Montgomery County jury, that deliberated for more than six hours on Wednesday but could not reach a verdict as one of the jurors got incapacitated for unknown reasons, started fresh deliberations today, with a new juror.
After deliberating since morning today, Yandamuri, 28, was given guilty verdict of two counts of first degree murder in the killings of the Vennas.
Yandamuri in his closing arguments on Tuesday proclaimed innocence. Representing himself, as his court-appointed lawyer sat on the side lines watching, the former IT worker who came to the US from Andhra Pradesh on an H-1B visa, blamed the police for cherry picking evidence and blaming him for the heinous crimes. He said two white men, whom he named as Matt and Josh, coerced him to help them in their bid to kidnap Saanvi, which ended horribly wrong, in a double murder.
Read a previous story in The American Bazaar:
The case will now go to a penalty phase where the jury will deliberate whether Yandamuri will either get the death penalty or life in prison, with no chance of parole.
Yandamuri’s wife did not testify at his trial, despite his request. She left for India earlier, and refused to come back to testify. Yandamuri had blamed her also for his predicament, saying that she pocketed the $50,000 reward money for the killer of the Vennas. She was pregnant at the time the Vennas were killed.
Read a previous story in The American Bazaar on why Yandamuri should be delivered the death penalty:
http://www.americanbazaaronline.com/2014/10/09/deliver-death-penalty-raghunandan-yandamuri/