Man sentenced to death for killings of wife, her family in West Chester Township
A three-judge panel handed down a sentence Tuesday in the second capital murder trial of Gurpreet Singh, who was convicted of gunning down his wife and her family inside a West Chester Township apartment.
The Butler County Common Pleas Court judges sentenced 41-year-old Singh to death. A mistrial was declared in Singh's first trial in 2022 because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Prosecutors called 34 witnesses in eight days, painting a picture of an expensive affair and family relationships strained by money troubles, arguing Singh alone had the motive and opportunity to carry out the killings.
The judges agreed and found Singh guilty on Friday of four counts of aggravated murder for killing four people at the Lakefront apartment complex on April 28, 2019, including:
Shalinderjit Kaur, 39, Singh's wife.
Parmjit Kaur, 62, Singh's mother-in-law.
Amarjit Kaur, 58, Singh's wife's aunt.
Hakiakat Singh Pannag, 59, Singh's father-in-law.
It took Judges Gregory Howard, Keith Spaeth and Greg Stephens just over two hours to find Singh guilty as charged. The judges deliberated for close to another two hours before sentencing Singh to death on each count.
Singh did not testify in his defense or make a statement during the trial's sentencing phase.
"It's about time that we end any discussion by any defense attorneys that have made statements and comments in the press before that this defendant is somehow innocent," said Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser. "That train has left the station."
Each of the victims was shot multiple times in the head, with a total of 16 gunshot wounds between them, and there were no defensive wounds, according to Hamilton County Chief Deputy Coroner Dr. Karen Looman.
Prosecutors said Singh’s relationship with his father-in-law had grown tense amid Singh's declining finances and repeated demands for money, adding that Singh couldn’t afford his lifestyle.
A woman who was in a relationship with him testified that he gave her $20,000 toward the downpayment of a house in Indianapolis, helped with her mortgage and even bought her a luxury SUV.
Singh also bought a house on the same street as the woman, where he planned to move his family, and visited the home with relatives weeks after the killings, according to trial testimony.
Singh lied to police about his affair and about being home during the incident, prosecutors said, pointing to evidence showing he entered the apartment almost 30 minutes before reporting the shooting to 911.
He told detectives during a recorded interview that he’d just arrived home when he found the apartment door open and his family on the floor bleeding and never said anything about being home when his family was killed.
However, Singh’s attorneys argued he witnessed his family's deaths at the hands of an unknown shooter. They also pointed to an ongoing legal dispute over the sale of land in India as another possible motive for the killings.
Police obtained a search warrant to swab Singh’s hands for gunshot residue and those results were positive, but that doesn't necessarily mean he fired the gun, according to trial testimony.
Shortly after the shooting, investigators found the murder weapon – a 9mm handgun – submerged in a pond behind Singh’s apartment. The gun’s serial number was pried off and detectives couldn’t trace where it was last purchased and by whom.
Prosecutors said Singh carefully planned his family’s killing, including by calling off work and arranging for his three children to be out of the apartment, and lied to shield himself from a police investigation.
Pannag was shot first while lying in bed, followed by his daughter, wife and sister-in-law, according to prosecutors, who said Singh stood over his unconscious wife when he fired the fatal rounds.
“He started with the person he liked the least,” Butler County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Josh Muennich said of the order in which Singh shot his family.
As mitigating evidence against a death sentence, Singh's attorneys elicited testimony from Singh's spiritual advisor and family members who described Singh as being religious, caring toward family and a hard worker. They also pointed to a lack of prior criminal convictions.
Bob Stinson, a forensic psychologist who evaluated Singh in anticipation of his sentencing, testified that Singh is unlike other capital offenders in the way he's been able to maintain long-term, stable relationships throughout his life.
However, prosecutors argued Singh's purposeful murders of his wife and her family outweighed everything else.
"The importance of that family was the furthest thing from his mind when he killed everyone he should've held dear," Muennich said.
While Singh has yet to make any admission of his involvement in his family's killings, their loved ones' belief in his guilt has remained firm even after five years. Still, they would've liked some kind of acknowledgment.
"We thought that he's gonna speak up, but he never showed any emotions, he had never told anybody how he has done it. We wanted to know that," Jasdeep Singh, Amarjit Kaur's son, told reporters after Tuesday's sentencing verdict.
Singh is expected to appear in court again at 1:30 p.m. May 22 for a formal sentencing hearing.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Gurpreet Singh sentenced to death in killing of family in West Chester
