A federal judge of the United States rejected on Tuesday the requests for new judgments for two men convicted of human smuggling charges for the death of four members of a family in India who froze until death while trying to cross the Canadian border to Minnesota during a snowstorm in 2022.
The American district judge John Tunheim refused to put aside the guilt verdicts that a jury returned last November against Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel and Steve Anthony Shand.
Their order clear the way for the two defendants to take their cases to a Federal Court of Appeals after Condene on May 7.
The lawyers of both men argued that the evidence was insufficient.
“But this was not a nearby case,” Tunheim replied.
The judge determined that there were enough evidence for the jury to find Shand and Patel guilty for the four charges.
He said that the failure of prosecutors until the end of the trial to reveal a previous disciplinary action against a border patrol agent who testified, while he was worrisome, had a minimum impact on the general case. He also maintained his decision to prove the defendants instead of separately.
Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian citizen that prosecutors say that he went through the “dirty Harry”, and Shand, a Florida American, was part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought a growing number of Indians to the United States.
The victims said: Jagdish Patel, 39; His wife, Vaishaliben, who was about 30 years old; his 11 -year -old daughter, Hangangi; And three -year -old son, Dharmik, frozen until death just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on January 19, 2022.
The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western state of India of Gujarat. The couple was school teachers, they said local news reports.
Seven other members of his group survived the crossing of feet.
Patel is a common Indian surname, and victims were not related to the defendant.
The most serious counts have maximum sentences of up to 20 years in prison. But federal sentence guidelines depend on complicated formulas, and prosecutors have not yet said what they will recommend for sentences.
