Facing a jury trial last week, a 72-year-old woman linked to a Suisun City hammer murder in 2017 struck a plea deal on Wednesday, admitting she, not her husband, who was initially charged, committed the crime and faces 15 years to life when she is sentenced in the coming weeks in Fairfield.
Official court records show that Surjit Kaur waived her rights, withdrew her not-guilty plea and pleaded no contest to the second-degree murder of her daughter-in-law, Shameena Bibi, 29, who investigators believe was fatally bludgeoned with a hammer inside the attached garage of a Suisun City home.
By entering the no-contest plea, Kaur did not admit guilt but, essentially, stated she would offer no defense.
Superior Court Judge John B. Ellis immediately found her guilty and ordered her to return for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 11 in Department 23 in the Justice Center. Kaur was represented by court-appointed attorney Leslie Prince.
Upon the request of Deputy District Attorney Bill Ainsworth, who prosecuted the case over the years, the judge dismissed a use-of-a-deadly-weapon charge against her.
Ellis also referred the matter to the Solano County Probation Department for a presentencing report and ordered a probation officer to interview Kaur in person. She requires a Punjabi interpreter during court proceedings.
Her husband, Amarjit Singh, 67, initially was linked to the case, but, on a motion submitted by Ainsworth, the judge dismissed the first-degree murder case him, and released him from custody, “pending other holds,” court records showed. Deputy Public Defender Max Fuentes represented Singh, who also required a Punjabi translator.
After five years, the case’s resolution came more than two years after Prince asked Judge John B. Ellis during a late January 2020 proceeding in the Hall of Justice in Fairfield to consider a motion to dismiss all — or parts of — a June 2019 Solano County grand jury indictment of her client.
Ellis denied Prince’s motion, saying the co-defendants at the time, “came away with blood on them and made incriminating statements” to investigators after the crime.
The grand jury indictment also resulted in naming a third suspect in the case, Megh Singh Chouhan, 31, who was charged with being an accessory after the fact, but his case was dismissed on Jan. 8, 2020, according to court records and confirmed by Ainsworth.
After the grand jury indictment, Singh was arraigned for the second time and entered a not-guilty plea to a new first-degree murder charge.
In an earlier interview with The Reporter, Fuentes said Singh’s original murder charge was dismissed so his client would not be charged with the same offense in two separate cases. The newly filed charge in June 2019 was based on the same evidence, he said.
Shortly after being questioned, Singh confessed, according to Suisun City police records. However, Fuentes, at a subsequent proceeding heard by Ellis, successfully argued to suppress the confession. It is unclear why Singh confessed.
The court initially set a $2 million bail bond for both Singh, who remained in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield while he was in custody, and Kaur, who remains in the Justice Center Detention Facility, also in Fairfield.
The Suisun City Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation.
Bibi was found dead on March 7, 2017, in the garage of her home in the 800 block of Blue Bill Way, one she shared with her husband, in-laws, and son, who was 2 years old at the time.
The grand jury indictment was amended on Aug. 16 to indicate Kaur, not Singh, was to face a murder charge for Bibi’s death, court records show.
In a text message Monday to The Reporter, Ainsworth said Kaur told Ellis she was solely responsible for Bibi’s death and said her husband did not enter the garage until after her murder.
Source: www.mercurynews.com