2nd man convicted of human smuggling after family froze to death at Manitoba border files notice of appeal
Both men convicted of human smuggling following a trial last year have now filed notices of appeal, in a case where a family of four from India froze to death as they tried to walk across the international border from Manitoba in blizzard conditions in 2022.
A lawyer for Harshkumar Patel filed the notice in United States District Court in the District of Minnesota on Friday, after lawyers for co-accused Steve Shand filed his notice of appeal on Wednesday.
The notice said Patel plans to appeal both his conviction and sentence, and that he intends to challenge the constitutionality and application of sentencing guidelines in the case.
Last week, Patel and Shand were sentenced in a Minnesota courtroom to lengthy prison terms for their roles in carrying out a scheme to bring Indian migrants into the U.S. from Canada.
Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago last year, was sentenced to just over 10 years in prison for co-ordinating the smuggling operation and hiring Shand, a Florida resident, to drive the migrants once they walked over the border into the U.S.
Shand was arrested near the border the night the family died. He was found, along with other Indian nationals, in a van stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side of the border that night.
Last week, he was handed a sentence of six and a half years in prison to be followed by a period of supervised release.
The two men were tried and convicted in the federal courthouse in Fergus Falls, Minn., last November, after a jury deliberated for less than 90 minutes before returning with guilty verdicts on all four charges each of the men faced related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it.
The men's notices of appeal come more than three years after four members of the Patel family (who were not related to Harshkumar Patel) died while trying to walk across the border.
The frozen bodies of 39-year-old Jagdish Patel, his 37-year-old wife, Vaishali, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a snow-drifted Manitoba field about 12 metres from the U.S. border on Jan. 19, 2022.
The temperature that day was –23 C, but the wind chill made it feel like the –35 to –38 range.
U.S. federal prosecutors had recommended sentences of nearly 20 years for Patel, and nearly 11 years for Shand. Both men's lawyers had asked for lower sentences than what prosecutors were seeking.
Patel's lawyers argued at trial he was wrongfully accused in the case, while Shand's described their client as an unsuspecting cab driver duped by Patel into shuttling migrants into the U.S. after they walked across the international border illegally.
Court heard Patel, who appeared at his May 28 sentencing in an orange uniform and handcuffed, is likely to be deported to his native India after completing his sentence. Shand left the courthouse with his lawyers, and will be taken into custody at a later date.
In April, a judge rejected requests to acquit or order new trials for the men, whose lawyers had argued the evidence against their clients was insufficient.
To date, no one in Canada is facing charges in the case. RCMP previously said the investigation was ongoing, and did not respond to a request for an update last week.
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