Judge Greg Howard indicated attorneys Mark Wieczorek and Alexandria Deardorff, who have been retained by the defendant, filed certification they had reviewed the American Bar Association guidelines for appointment and performance of defense attorneys in death penalty cases. The judge made that requirement in a previous hearing.
A number of standard motions in capital cases that had been filed by previous counsel were withdrawn ,and the prosecution indicated they wanted to respond to a couple motions that had not yet been ruled on.
Deardorff said the defense plans to file more pointed motions that are case specific and inquired about the a filed deadline.
“My only motion deadline is we have a trial in April,” Howard said. “I want to keep that trial date. I do not want to continue that trial date.”
The judge said the motions should be filed on a timely basis with time for the prosecution to respond and get it on the docket for argument with an interpreter present.
“That is my main concern,” he said.
The next pre-trial hearing is set for Oct. 17.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Wieczorek and Alexandria Deardorff were retained by Singh in April. They are replacing court-appointed attorneys David Washington, Jeremy Evans and Lawrence Hawkins III, who were appointed after the first trial ended in a hung jury in October 2022.
Singh, who faces the death penalty if convicted, remains housed in the Butler County Jail without bond.
In October, after a three-week trial with nearly two weeks of testimony and 14 hours of deliberation, Howard declared a mistrial when the jury indicated it was hung and did not believe any further deliberations would serve a useful purpose.
After the mistrial, Singh’s retained attorneys from Rittgers and Rittgers law firm were permitted to withdraw from his case indicating Singh could no longer pay them. Howard then appointed Washington and Evans, who have specialized training in capital cases, to represent Singh.
Singh represented to the court he was indigent when seeking public funds for experts before his first trial after paying the defense team $250,000. Following the mistrial, he received court-appointed attorneys after indicating he remained indigent.
Months later, Singh was able to retain the latest defense team. Prosecutors have requested the court to require a contract between the new, paid attorneys and Singh to assure the money was in place to cover the cost of the trial.
Howard said if there is a request by the defense to declare Singh indigent and for public funds for experts, “be prepared to offer a contract and what arrangements have been made.”
The 40-year-old former truck driver is charged with four counts of aggravated murder for allegedly shooting and killing his wife Shalinderjit Kaur, 39; his in-laws, Hakikat Singh Pannag, 59, and Parmjit Kaur, 62; and his aunt-in-law, Amarjit Kaur, 58, at a West Chester Twp. apartment on April 28, 2019.
During the first trial, prosecutors said Singh murdered his family by shooting them all in the head after a longtime affair he was having and a strained relationship with his in-laws over money from land owned in India.
The defense team at the first trial said Singh is innocent and the killings were part of a professional hit due to Pannag’s financial woes and a dubious land contract deal in India with the “land mafia.” They say three masked men broke into the apartment with baseball bats, and Singh ran for his life. When he returned, everyone was dead.
But there was little evidence presented at trial by the defense to support that theory.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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