Chiman Rai, 68, was sentenced in Atlanta, Georgia to life in prison for the murder of his daughter-i-law. The Indian born businessman was accused of killing Sparkle Michelle Rai because she was black and he viewed the marriage as bringing shame upon his family.
Rai avoided the death penalty, which the prosecutors had sought in the case.
Sparkle, 22, was found strangled
and stabbed in 2000, not long after she married Rai’s son, Ricki Rai of arranging the murder for &10,000. Ricky Rai ran a hotel for his father and hired Sparkle Reid as a clerk. Two months after they started dating, she became pregnant with their daughter Analla and they married. Analla was in the room when her mother was killed but she was unharmed.
The prosecutors used a jailhouse snitch who was Rai cellmate against him. The snitch said that Rai called black people “scum.” The two middlemen, Willie Fred Evans and Herbert Green, used to contract with the alleged killers cut a deal and testified against Rai. The alleged killers — a brother team, Cleveland and Carl Clark, are awaiting trial.
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