Minnesota gets conviction in deadly border crossing case

The jury found two men guilty of all charges for their participation in human smuggling network it arranged passage for a family of four migrants who ended up freezing to death after getting lost in a snowstorm while trying to cross illegally from Canada to America.

Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand were found guilty of conspiracy to bring noncitizens into the United Statescausing serious bodily harm and endangering human life; conspiracy to transport aliens causing serious bodily injury and endangering human life; attempting to transport aliens into the United States for commercial gain and private financial gain; and aiding and abetting attempts to transport aliens to America for commercial gain or private financial gain.

The jury began deliberations at 10:40 a.m. Friday after hearing evidence for more than three days. Law enforcement agencies will inform the press about the verdict.

Prosecutors argued the defendants put profit before lives on the night of Jan. 19, 2022, when Patel allegedly paid Shand to travel to northern Minnesota to pick up a group of 11 migrants from India who were coming up from Manitoba. But when the temperature dropped below minus 33 degrees and a blizzard hit, a family died in the snow: Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben, 37; Vihangi, 11; and Dharmik, 3 years old. That morning, authorities stopped Shand in a van near the border and found two migrants inside; they soon met five more who had come from the fields, one of whom suffered severe frostbite.

The government alleged that Patel (no relation to the victims) coordinated a series of trips from Florida starting in December 2021, paying fellow Sunshine State resident Shand to travel to northern Minnesota to pick up migrants who had crossed the border illegally from Manitoba. and drop them off. in Chicago.

Patel’s lawyer said authorities had the wrong person, and not the same person who spoke with Shand on the phone about the trips. Shand’s defense lawyer described him as a taxi driver who was an unwitting participant in the scheme and was “used” by Patel and others. One of the prosecution’s key witnesses, convicted West Coast smuggler Rajinder Pal Singh, blamed a Canadian participant in the scheme for the Patel family’s deaths that night. He said that Phenil Patel, who has been charged by Indian police and lives in Toronto, arranged for Indian migrants to get Canadian visas so they could cross illegally into the US, and that he coordinated their crossing from the northern border.\

Judge John R. Tunheim denied Shand’s lawyer Aaron Morrison’s motion for a mistrial after it was later learned that one of the prosecution’s witnesses, Border Patrol Agent Daniel Hughley, was suspended for 14 days in 2019 for conduct that, according to his agency, is called calling into question his professionalism. Prosecutors said they only received the case late Thursday, two days after Hughley appeared as a witness. While in New Mexico, CBP determined he attempted to gain access to a woman’s room without her consent by providing false information to the hotel front desk.

In special instructions to the jury, Tunheim said Huguley did not disclose this information despite Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Manuel Jimenez asking him about his disciplinary history, and that jurors could use this information to test the credibility of his testimony.