A judge sentenced Maninder Kaila to a life sentence Friday for murder. Parmajit Singh was his victim.
For the first time, Kaila accepted some blame for killing the man who employed him and treated him as family. Through an interpreter, the murderer tried to finally make peace.
"I just want to say that I'm at fault and I want to ask for forgiveness from everyone," he said.
During his trial, Kaila admitted he was angry at Singh back in April 2010. He grabbed a gun, drove from his home in Fowler to the gas station in Kingsburg, and shot Singh twice.
He tried to explain that Singh had threatened him the night before, but Judge Kent Hamlin called Kaila's testimony the best case he's ever heard for a first degree murder conviction. And the victim's tearful widow delivered an angry statement about the impact on her family.
"He murdered a husband," said Gurjit Kaur. "He murdered a father. He murdered a friend."
Kaur said her family will live with the pain and grief forever. Her two sons still hope their father will walk through the door, she said. And all this from the only man who was allowed to hug her in public because of how close he was to her family.
"He stabbed me in the back," she said. "He called me his sister. He called my sons his nephews. And he took our loved one away. And we will never forgive him."
Maninder Kaila will be 107 before he's eligible for parole.
