An Indian-American man and his mother were sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ohio court for murdering his wife, allegedly due to domestic tensions over her non-adherence to 'Indian customs'.
Thirty three-year-old Chetan Patel and his mother Minaxiben, 50, were convicted by a jury for aggravated murder, tampering with evidence, and abuse of a corpse.
A judge in Summit County, Ohio, on Wednesday awarded the man a life term with a possibility of parole after 30 years. Chetan's mother got life imprisonment with a possibility of parole after 25 years for the slaying of 28-year-old Sejal Patel of Twinsburg in 2005.
The body of the woman, a mother of two children aged 7 and 4, was found in the rear cargo compartment of a sports utility vehicle. She had been beaten and strangled.
Two co-defendants, Rupal Patel, 33, and Vijay Patel, 37, unrelated to the family and each other, previously pleaded guilty to murder charges and were given life sentences. Prosecutors said Rupal and Chetan, a suspect in two domestic incidents involving his wife before the slaying, were having an affair. Vijay was a family friend.
According to prosecutors, the Patels' marriage was unravelling and tensions were building between the young woman and her mother-in-law. They said Minaxiben did not approve of the marriage because Sejal did not adhere to 'Indian customs'.
Assistant Summit County prosecutor Brian LoPrinzi told the court that notifying the police about the domestic incidents had greatly irritated the mother-in-law.
Lata Patel, the victim's mother, made a brief statement in the court, asking her son-in-law why he thought problems with his wife had become so serious that he had to resort to killing her. "You could have just divorced her so she could have come to my house," she said.
The trial progressed slowly because a court-appointed interpreter was needed. Standing at the defence table, Chetan Patel denied any involvement in the slaying. "God knows and my wife knows I did not kill her," he told the judge.
He blamed Rupal Patel and Vijay Patel, saying they both pointed the finger at him during the investigation by the Twinsburg police.
Minaxiben Patel hung her head, staring at the courtroom floor, throughout most of the sentencing hearing. Defence lawyer Carolyn Mulligan, speaking on behalf of her, said she maintained her innocence from the day she had first met her.
The Twinsburg police detective Jim Scarl, the lead investigator, said Chetan, his mother and Vijay participated in the killing in the family room of their Twinsburg home. Rupal Patel, who had worked for Chetan at a store he owned in Barberton, was waiting outside in a vehicle.