Suspect pleads not guilty in US Sikh family's murder
Darpan News Desk IANS, 14 Oct, 2022 12:33 PM
New York, Oct 14 (IANS) The accused in the kidnapping and killing of four members of an Indian-origin Sikh family in California, including an eight-month-old baby, pleaded not guilty to all the charges in court.
On Thursday, Jesus Salgado appeared in Merced County Superior court wearing shackles and a safety garment, ABC30 reported.
He is charged with four counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, along with arson and possession of a firearm by a felon.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Salgado will be back in court on December 15.
Relatives announced that the family would be laid to rest on Saturday in Turlock.
The funeral will be closed to the public but anyone who would like to support the family can gather outside the venue.
The bodies of eight-month-old Aroohi Dheri, her parents Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36, and her uncle Amandeep Singh, 39 were found in an "extremely remote" area near the intersection of Indiana and Hutchins roads.
Salgado is said to have had a long-standing feud with the family and was a former employee in their trucking business.
In a mindless act of revenge, he murdered the family.
It was reported that the suspect was undergoing medical treatment after he attempted to kill himself before officials arrived to arrest him on October 4.
Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke has called for Salgado to face the death penalty.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week warned the Delta variant of the virus is so contagious, vaccinated people who do get infected could be just as big a risk to others as people who aren't vaccinated.
The new requirement, which will be phased in over several weeks in August and September, is the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the delta variant.
The findings have the potential to upend past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously, vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the new data shows that is not the case with the delta variant.
President Joe Biden is calling on states and local governments to join those that are already handing out dollars for shots. New York, the nation's biggest city, started doling out $100 awards on Friday.
The internal documents also cite studies from Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that the delta variant may pose a greater risk for hospitalization, intensive care treatment and death than the alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom.
