Men convicted in death of family crossing Manitoba border seek acquittal, new trial

FERGUS FALLS — The two men found guilty of human smuggling in the case of a family from India who froze to death while trying to walk across the Canada-U.S. border in Manitoba in 2022 are seeking acquittal, or new trials.

The two men, Steve Shand of Florida and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago, were convicted by a Minnesota jury in November on all four counts each were facing.

Lawyers for Patel and Shand made their cases for acquittal or a new trial in separate motions filed on Friday in the United States District Court of Minnesota.

During the trial the prosecution had argued Shand and Patel were part of an international smuggling ring that brought people from India to Canada on student visas, then sent them on foot across the border to the U.S.

They were accused of carrying out smuggling trips between Manitoba and Minnesota on several occasions in December 2021 and January 2022.

Patel was alleged to have organized the logistics and paid Shand for picking up migrants on the U.S. side in rented vehicles.

Shand was arrested while driving a van on a remote road just south of the border during a blizzard on Jan. 19, 2022, when the temperature was –23 C, but the wind chill made it feel like the –35 C to –38 C range.

There were two adult migrants in the van and several others were found on foot nearby.

Hours later, the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a field in Manitoba, metres from the U.S. border.

The family was not related to Harshkumar Patel.

Patel’s and Shand’s lawyers argue that the evidence presented to the jury was insufficient to prove the men’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

A motion filed by Patel’s lawyer, Thomas Leinenweber, claims that no evidence was brought forward that proved his client was involved in the conspiracy or that he knew the individuals being transported were crossing the border illegally.

“There was no testimony by any witness that Patel knew or acted in reckless disregard that the people crossing the border were aliens not lawfully in the United States,” the motion reads. “Likewise, there was no forensic testimony that Patel knew or acted in reckless disregard of this fact.”

“Because this is an essential element to all four counts that Patel was found guilty of, this Court should enter an order granting judgment of acquittal on all counts.”

The motion also claims that Patel was not “Dirty Harry” — the contact saved in Shand’s phone who Shand was communicating with.

Patel’s lawyer filed another motion that requests, in absence of an acquittal, that a new trial be ordered.

That motion argues in part that Patel should be granted a new trial because the court had denied his previous request to be tried separately from Shand.

According to the motion, a joint trial was unfair because Shand’s defence in court rested entirely on Patel being guilty.

“Shand’s counsel repeatedly argued that Shand was an innocent taxi driver simply picking up passengers at the border of Canada and the United States at the behest of Patel,” the motion reads.

Because of the strategy of his co-defendant, “Patel was forced to face two parties trying to establish his guilt – the government and co-defendant,” it continued.

Patel’s lawyer argues that this scenario “was clearly irreconcilable with Patel’s right to a fair trial” and made it so the jury was unable to “compartmentalize” the evidence presented to them.

Despite this, Patel’s motion for a new trial also says he joins in all arguments made by Shand in Shand’s motion for a new trial.

Shand’s motion, filed by lawyer Aaron Morrison, also argues that the evidence put forward at trial was insufficient to prove his guilt.

The motion also argues that if the government’s “late disclosures” of evidence were filed on time, the outcome of the trial could’ve been different.

Patel and Shand were expected to be sentenced in March.