Punjab man gets 82-yr jail in US for killing compatriot
A 30-year-old man from Punjab has been sentenced to 82 years in jail by a US court for killing a compatriot and wounding another during a festival at a Sikh sports complex in Sacramento, California, in 2008.
A 30-year-old man from Punjab has been sentenced to 82 years in jail by a US court for killing a compatriot and wounding another during a festival at a Sikh sports complex in Sacramento, California, in 2008.
A Sacramento superior court judge on Friday sentenced Amandeep Singh Dhami to 82 years to life in state prison for murdering Parmjit Singh (26), and wounding Sahibjeet Singh, one of Parmjit’s associates, on August 31, 2008, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Dhami managed to flee after the broad daylight shooting, but his accomplice Gurpreet Singh Gosal (28) was nabbed and handed over to police by locals.
Gosal was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison after trial for second-degree murder and firing a weapon in the course of a murder for his role in the shooting.
Dhami fled the US and remained in India for five years before he was arrested in Jalandhar by Punjab Police and extradited to California in 2013 to face charges of second-degree murder and attempt to murder.
A Sacramento superior court jury in June last year had found Dhami guilty.
Prosecutors said Dhami and Gosal sought out Parmjit and his men at the festival grounds as revenge for a tussle with members of his crew at a San Jose nightclub a few days earlier. The fight had been the latest in a long-standing feud between the rival camps, the newspaper said.
“During the trial, prosecutors depicted Dhami as a low-level, but violent gangster who boasted of his exploits on social media where his moniker was ‘Mista Killafornia’,” the paper said.
Prosecutors said Dhami and Gosal were armed with three handguns and about 250 rounds of ammunition when they climbed out of the festival’s parking lot.
Sacramento County deputy district attorney Anthony Ortiz called Dhami “a hardcore gangster armed for war”.
Dhami took the stand at trial, testifying that he and Gosal went to the festival to mend fences after the incident at the San Jose nightclub, but were armed in case of an ambush. Dhami said he envisioned a meeting of “two gangsters who could work things out,” before shots rang out.