Shanker Chhaganbahi Patel was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for orchestrating his wife’s brutal murder 25 years ago in San Dimas.
"The regret or remorse that you see is from him being found guilty, I would say, not from being part of murdering the mother of his children," said Manoj Patel, the victim’s brother.
On Nov. 19, 1991, Usha Patel entered the couple’s garage with the intention of picking up her 7-year-old daughter from school, said Deputy District Attorney John Monaghan. An assailant ambushed the 29-year-old, fatally stabbing her in the cheek and the chest. He bound her feet and mouth in duct tape and placed her in the trunk of her car.
He then drove to a nearby middle school and abandoned the car. Prosecutors said a law enforcement officer later saw her vehicle in the school’s parking lot and discovered her body.
The case eventually went cold, but authorities reopened it in 2010.
Investigators reexamined evidence, including a glove found in the front seat of Usha Patel’s car, using the California DNA Data Bank Program. They found a DNA match for Miguel Angel Garcia, 66, who later pled no contest to first-degree murder. He is currently serving 25 years to life in state prison.
According to the prosecution, Shanker Patel, now 57, paid a middleman $7,500 to arrange his wife’s murder. He also told the fixer where Garcia should hide in the home in order to carry out the attack.
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Evidence presented at trial suggested Shanker Patel was having an affair, and his wife, a law school student, planned to leave him after passing the California State Bar Exam.
The case was originally tried in 2015, but ended in a hung jury. Then his co-defendant, middleman Stanley Medina, decided to testify against Patel.
The couple’s children, who were all under 8 years old when their mother was murdered, believe their father did not receive a fair trial. Lawyers for Shanker Patel have already filed an appeal.
“We have been here for every step of the way and we feel justice was not served for our mother today,” Divya Patel said.
Manoj Patel said he still thinks about his sister every day.
He said, “Every morning. Every morning I light a diya, it is called, and pray for her.”
