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CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
2nd man convicted of human smuggling after family froze to death at Manitoba border files notice of appeal
Social Sharing 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.
CBC
2 days ago
- General
- CBC
Man convicted of human smuggling after family froze to death at Manitoba border files notice of appeal
Social Sharing One of two men convicted of human smuggling following a trial last year has filed a notice 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 Steve Shand filed the notice in United States District Court in the District of Minnesota on Wednesday. The notice said Shand plans to appeal both his conviction and sentence, and that he intends to challenge the application of sentencing guidelines in the case. Last week, Shand and co-accused Harshkumar Patel 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. Shand's notice of appeal comes 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 Dharmik, their three-year-old son, 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. While no notice of appeal appears to have been filed yet for Harshkumar Patel, his lawyer said following his May 28 sentencing that he did plan to file an appeal in the case. U.S. federal prosecutors had recommended sentences of nearly 20 years for Patel, and nearly 11 years for Shand. Meanwhile, both men's lawyers 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 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 was to 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.
CBC
28-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Human smugglers to be sentenced in death of family near Manitoba-U.S. border
Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, two men convicted of human smuggling in a case where a family of four from India froze to death trying to cross the border from Manitoba into the U.S. in 2022, are set to be sentenced in a Fergus Falls, Minn., courthouse on Wednesday.
Associated Press
28-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Men face prison for human smuggling after an Indian family of 4 died on the US-Canada border
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to cross into the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, two men face sentencing in Minnesota on Wednesday on human smuggling charges for their roles what prosecutors call an international conspiracy. Federal prosecutors have recommended nearly 20 years in prison for the alleged ringleader, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick the family up, Steve Anthony Shand. The prison terms are up to U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, who declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, 'This was not a close case.' Tunheim will hand down the sentences at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. The smuggling operation Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias 'Dirty Harry,' and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the U.S. border. They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant. The harsh conditions The father died while trying to shield Dharmik's face from a 'blistering wind' with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing 'ill-fitting boots and gloves.' Their mother 'died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,' McBride wrote. A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius). Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand's van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be flown to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada. Their inadequate winter clothes were only what the smugglers provided, the survivor told the jury. What prosecutors say 'Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the 'Dirty Harry' that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture — despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,' McBride wrote. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, at the top end of the recommended range under federal sentencing guidelines for his actions. They asked for Shand's sentence to be 10 years and 10 months, in the middle of his separate guidelines range. 'Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand's van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: 'we not losing any money,'' McBride wrote. 'Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.' What defense attorneys say Patel's attorneys, who have argued that the evidence was insufficient, had not filed a sentencing recommendation by Tuesday. But they did request a government-paid attorney for his planned appeal. Patel has been jailed since his arrest at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in February 2024 and claimed in the filing to have no income and no assets. Shand has been free pending sentencing. His attorney called the government's requested sentence 'unduly punitive' and requested just 27 months. The attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, acknowledged that Shand has 'a level of culpability' but argued that his role was limited — that he was just a taxi driver who needed money to support his wife and six children. 'Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy, he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,' Morrison wrote.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Men face prison for human smuggling after an Indian family of 4 died on the US-Canada border
More than three years after a family of four from India froze to death while trying to cross into the U.S. along a remote stretch of the Canadian border in a blizzard, two men face sentencing in Minnesota on Wednesday on human smuggling charges for their roles what prosecutors call an international conspiracy. Federal prosecutors have recommended nearly 20 years in prison for the alleged ringleader, Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, and nearly 11 years for the driver who was supposed to pick the family up, Steve Anthony Shand. The prison terms are up to U.S. District Judge John Tunheim, who declined last month to set aside the guilty verdicts, writing, 'This was not a close case.' Tunheim will hand down the sentences at the federal courthouse in the northwestern Minnesota city of Fergus Falls, where the two men were tried and convicted on four counts apiece last November. The smuggling operation Prosecutors said during the trial that Patel, an Indian national who they say went by the alias ' Dirty Harry,' and Shand, a U.S. citizen from Florida, were part of a sophisticated illegal operation that brought dozens of people from India to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them across the U.S. border. They said the victims, Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and 3-year-old son, Dharmik, froze to death. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police found their bodies just north of the border between Manitoba and Minnesota on Jan. 19, 2022. The family was from Dingucha, a village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as was Harshkumar Patel. Patel is a common Indian surname, and the victims were not related to the defendant. The couple were schoolteachers, local news reports said. So many villagers have gone overseas in hopes of better lives — legally and otherwise — that many homes there stand vacant. The harsh conditions The father died while trying to shield Dharmik's face from a 'blistering wind' with a frozen glove, prosecutor Michael McBride wrote. Vihangi was wearing 'ill-fitting boots and gloves.' Their mother 'died slumped against a chain-link fence she must have thought salvation lay behind,' McBride wrote. A nearby weather station recorded the wind chill that morning at -36 Fahrenheit (-38 Celsius). Seven other members of their group survived the foot crossing, but only two made it to Shand's van, which was stuck in the snow on the Minnesota side. One woman who survived had to be flown to a hospital with severe frostbite and hypothermia. Another survivor testified he had never seen snow before arriving in Canada. Their inadequate winter clothes were only what the smugglers provided, the survivor told the jury. What prosecutors say 'Mr. Patel has never shown an ounce of remorse. Even today, he continues to deny he is the 'Dirty Harry' that worked with Mr. Shand on this smuggling venture — despite substantial evidence to the contrary and counsel for his co-defendant identifying him as such at trial,' McBride wrote. Prosecutors asked for a sentence of 19 years and 7 months for Patel, at the top end of the recommended range under federal sentencing guidelines for his actions. They asked for Shand's sentence to be 10 years and 10 months, in the middle of his separate guidelines range. 'Even as this family wandered through the blizzard at 1:00 AM, searching for Mr. Shand's van, Mr. Shand was focused on one thing, which he texted Mr. Patel: 'we not losing any money,'' McBride wrote. 'Worse, when Customs and Border Patrol arrested Mr. Shand sitting in a mostly unoccupied 15-passenger van, he denied others were out in the snow — leaving them to freeze without aid.' What defense attorneys say Patel's attorneys, who have argued that the evidence was insufficient, had not filed a sentencing recommendation by Tuesday. But they did request a government-paid attorney for his planned appeal. Patel has been jailed since his arrest at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago in February 2024 and claimed in the filing to have no income and no assets. Shand has been free pending sentencing. His attorney called the government's requested sentence 'unduly punitive' and requested just 27 months. The attorney, federal defender Aaron Morrison, acknowledged that Shand has 'a level of culpability' but argued that his role was limited — that he was just a taxi driver who needed money to support his wife and six children. 'Mr. Shand was on the outside of the conspiracy, he did not plan the smuggling operation, he did not have decision making authority, and he did not reap the huge financial benefits as the real conspirators did,' Morrison wrote.
