American lawyers have submitted sentence presentations for two convicted men after a family froze until death while trying to walk along the border with Canada-United States in Manitoba.
A jury from Minnesota found Steve Shand and Harshkumar patel guilty of human contract charges after the parents and two children of India were found in the snow in January 2022.
Lawyers say in judicial documents that Patel is not regretful and requests that he be sentenced to just over 19 years in prison.
They also say that Shand should receive 10 years to conspire with Patel to smuggle migrants to the United States at least five times through brutal winter conditions.
Shand’s lawyer Aaron Morrison says in a document that the proposed sentence is “unduly punitive” and is requesting a little more than two years in prison.
A defense lawyer did not provide a document that describes a recommendation for Patel.
They were convicted last November in the deaths of January 2022 of the Patel family (which were not related to Harshkumar Patel).
The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, his 11 -year -old daughter, Hangangi, and his three -year -old son, Dharmik, were found in a Manitoba field, just 12 meters from the United States border, later in the morning of January 19, 2022.
The temperature of that day was –23 C, but the cold of the wind caused it to feel like the range of –35 to –38.
Shand was arrested near the border at the same time with other Indian citizens in the truck he was driving. Harshkumar Patel was arrested in Chicago in February 2024 for charges to coordinate smuggling and hiring of Shand.
Men are scheduled to be sentenced on May 28.
Last month, a United States district judge rejected requests for new judgments for men, ruling that there were sufficient evidence for the jury to find them guilty of the four positions.
