Defense attorney Charles H. Rittgers was waiting in county Area II Court on Friday morning for his client to be video arraigned on the initial charges of aggravated murder signed a month ago by West Chester police. But the indictment filed at 8:34 a.m. placed that arraignment in limbo.
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“(We) want him arraigned today,” Rittgers told the Journal-News Friday morning, adding he did not have a problem that appearance was before the Butler County Common Pleas judge assigned to the case, which is Judge Greg Howard.
Butler County Prosecutor Michael Gmoser said he wants the arraignment to take place before a common pleas judge because this case includes a death specification.
After meeting in Howard’s chambers, the attorneys agreed that Singh would be arraigned Monday morning in common pleas court.
Singh was booked into the Butler County Jail at 12:50 a.m. Friday after a lengthy ride with detectives from Connecticut. Singh was arrested in Connecticut on July 2, the day West Chester police issued four warrants for his arrest on aggravated murder charges. He remained housed in jail there after waiving further extradition proceedings.
Rittgers said Singh is “absolutely not guilty.”
While he has not talked with Singh since his return to Butler County, Rittgers said he has been in “constant contact” with Singh.
Singh retained Rittgers to represent him after West Chester police requested a second round of questioning, the attorney said. That is when Singh became concerned he was a suspect, despite being let go by detectives.
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“They took him to back to the station immediately after he called 911 and after he discovered the body of his wife and his in-laws. They took him from the scene back to the station and interrogated him for six or seven hours and let him go at four or five in the morning,” Rittgers said.
Singh, 37, is the man who called 911 at about 9:40 p.m. on the night of April 28 screaming that he had found his family dead, according to police. Rittgers said Singh had last seen his family alive about 6 p.m. when he left to work on his truck.
Singh is accused of the killing his wife, Shalinderjit Kaur, 39; his in-laws, Hakikat Singh Pannag, 59, and Parmjit Kaur, 62; and his aunt by marriage, Amarjit Kaur, 58, at their apartment on Wyndtree Drive. All died of gunshot wounds.
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