Washington, June 22 (IANS) An Indian American man has been convicted of murder of another Indian American man outside a Sikh temple in the US state of California in 2008.
A jury in Sacramento convicted Gurpreet Singh Gosal, 28, for the second degree murder of Parmjit Pamma Singh outside the Bradshaw gurdwara in Sacramento, California, during a Sikh sports festival Aug 31, 2008.
According to the jurors, Gosal fired a weapon but did not hit anyone.
However, it was his friend, Amandeep Singh Dhami, who shot and killed Singh over a long-running dispute between the two, the Sacramento Bee reported Saturday.
Dhami has reportedly fled to India after the incident with help from friends.
"I think the jury did a good job," deputy district attorney Anthony Ortiz, who had asked the panel for a first-degree conviction on Gosal under an aiding and abetting theory, was quoted as saying.
"The case had some major issues and they worked through them, and I think they came to a just verdict."
According to Rick Fender, a member of the jury, the panel was badly split at the beginning of its deliberations, with the votes ranging from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter.
"There was going to have to be some compromise in this case," he said.
Fender said that although an aider or abettor can be considered just as guilty as the actual killer, "there was softness in people's judgment" of Gosal who actually did not shoot anybody.
Gosal's sentencing has been scheduled for Aug 9.
He faces 35 years in prison.
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