In 2019, Gurpreet Singh, an Indian-origin truck driver in Ohio, called 911 and reported that his wife and her family had been killed. When cops arrived, they found four bodies, all shot to death, and Singh had blood splatters and gunshot residue on his body. Singh was not arrested immediately but after three months.
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Ohio had a halt on the death penalty in 2020 as Gov Mike DeWine then said that there were not enough lethal injection drugs available.
In 2024, death penalty returned as Singh was given a death sentence for killing four people: his wife Shalinderjit Kaur, 39; her parents Parmjit Kaur, 62, and Hakiakat Singh Pannag, 59 and his wife’s aunt, Amarjit Kaur, 58. The date of Singh's execution was set for November 27 that year, but Singh appealed for a retrial.
After two trials on taxpayers' money, Singh is now seeking a third trial.
Earlier this week, Kathryn Sandford asked the Ohio Supreme Court for another fresh trial, calling the previous attorneys ineffective. Sandford said Gurpreet's first language is Punjabi and hence there might have been a language barrier.
Taxpayers paid $180,206.26 for Singh’s defense at both trials, according to Butler County Common Pleas Court Administrator Wayne Gilkison in 2024. The judge declared him indigent before the first trial and Singh retained his private attorneys who were hired and paid for by his family, but the county had to pay for additional expenses such as defense experts and four interpreters. Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser said his office spent another $26,552.61 to prosecute, including travel to locate and interview experts and witnesses.
Gurpreet Singh's secret affair
At the time of his wife’s killing, Gurpreet Singh had been living a double life. His attorneys conceded in documents that he had been having an affair with another woman and had purchased a home near her nine months before the murders. Prosecutors said that Gurpreet Singh killed his family because he could no longer support both his mistress and his wife’s household on his salary as a truck driver.
No other shooter's name came up in the investigation.
