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Nirshan Perera
A man who dampened the festivities at a Fremont wedding last year by killing one guest, wounding another, and then hijacking a car to flee the scene of crime, called it quits this week by pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter.
Amandeep Singh Ahluwalia, 20, agreed to serve 16 years and 8 months in the US prison system before being deported back to his native England. Defence lawyer Michael Cardoza described the plea deal today as a "wonderful" outcome for his client, given a much sterner alternative: a possible life sentence.
"It's a miracle," Cardoza said. "If you add everything up, we were looking at 107 years. It's a wonderful disposition."
Ahluwalia, who was living with relatives in Hayward at the time of the April 22, 2000 incident, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, carjacking and the use of a deadly weapon.
According to police, a hot-tempered argument with Ahluwalia at the centre disintegrated into bloody chaos at the Sikh wedding reception held at the Metropole banquet hall on Fremont Boulevard.
By the time cops arrived, Jatinder Singh, 24, lay dead on the ground, and J Preet Singh was bleeding profusely from a bullet hole in his back. According to witnesses, Ahluwahlia was long gone, having fled the banquet hall and forced a woman at a nearby gas station out of her car at gunpoint.
The carjacking victim, Stacy Perata, was not injured and her Ford Mustang was found abandoned a quarter-mile away.
"Remember, there were about 60 people there," Cardoza observed, referring to the wedding reception. "He could have gotten 25-30 years for the carjacking and attempted murder charge alone. This was a God-send."
So why did the prosecution offer Ahluwalia an easy way out?
The murdered man, Jatinder Singh, may have had a checkered history himself, possibly as a member of one of northern California's Punjabi street gangs, and the state may not have wanted the revelation to risk weakening their case.
"The man who was shot ... we were able bring up the fact that he had violent incidents in his past," the defence lawyer noted. "I agree with my client's decision to accept the deal."
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