Man who murdered teenage ex- girlfriend sentenced to life

The family of murdered teen Poonam Randhawa can finally move forward after the man who gunned her down was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday with no hope of parole for 16 years.

“We can breathe again,” her cousin Harry Randhawa said after the sentencing. “We’ll focus on rebuilding our family and looking towards the future and thinking about how we can take the beautiful things that Poonam stood for and use them in a positive way.”

B. C. Supreme Court Justice Bruce Butler described the anguish suffered by Randhawa’s family because of the actions of killer Ninderjit Singh both before and after the brutal Jan. 26, 1999 slaying of the bright high school student.

Not only did Singh shoot his girlfriend in the head and dump her in a Vancouver alley, he then fled to the U. S. where he hid out until he was captured by police in Aug. 2011.

“For more than 12 years, the Randhawas could not rest. They were denied closure and any sense of justice,” Butler said as Randhawa’s family packed the courtroom.

Singh pleaded guilty to second degree murder last month as his trial was set to begin.

“The remorse that he expressed in his statement to the court can only be described as too little and far far too late,” Butler said. He said Singh, now 35, deserved a longer parole ineligibility period than the 10- year minimum for second degree murder.

Singh’s young wife Navdeep, with whom he had two daughters while on the run, sobbed after hearing Butler’s ruling. Her in- laws hustled her out of the Vancouver Law Courts without speaking to reporters.

Butler said recorded conversations from prison in which Singh swore at his wife and threatened her “demonstrate continued bullying of women in his life.”

Harry Randhawa said he thought Singh’s wife and children would be safer now that he is behind bars.