Life sentence for man who stabbed wife to death
Sandeep Tehara had been REGINA back in Canada only hours when, early on a May morning, her husband stabbed her to death in front of the couple’s two young children.
On Thursday, Jagdish Singh Tehara, 40, appeared at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench where he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 38-year-old Sandeep’s May 22, 2016, death.
“The horrific nature of the crime cannot be understated,” Crown prosecutor Adam Breker told the court as he joined defence lawyer Andrew Hitchcock in asking Justice Ellen Gunn to set parole ineligibility at 12 years on the mandatory life sentence.
Gunn imposed that sentence, agreeing with Breker that the impact on the couple’s children — aged 10 and five at the time — is and will continue to be enormous.
The marriage became strained in the time leading to the killing, Tehara having undergone a recent cancer surgery and struggling with deep depression.
Sandeep was having her own problems and Hitchcock said she returned to India in an attempt to solve them.
Tehara told police his own reunion was not a joyful one, and that Sandeep told him she planned to stay a month and then leave with the kids.
That night, Sandeep went to bed with the couple’s five-year-old daughter while Tehara slept on a pullout couch in the living room.
It’s believed the murder occurred sometime between 2 a.m. and 3:30 a.m., although Tehara said he has no memory of the incident.
Details of the slaying were largely provided by the 10-year-old boy, who awoke to the sounds of his mother screaming.