Lawyer: Montco kidnapping suspect’s confession ‘coerced’
NORRISTOWN — The defense attorney in the Upper Merion double homicide death penalty case claims his client was illegally arrested, detained and was “coerced” into confessing to the murders following his arrest in October 2012.
Defense attorney Stephen G. Heckman filed motions to suppress evidence in Montgomery County Court Monday, citing the commonwealth’s possession of “tainted” evidence. He claims his client gave self-incriminating statements to police without being read his Miranda rights and after a grueling 17-hour interrogation process.
Heckman represents Upper Merion’s Raghunandan Yandamuri, 27, who is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Satyavathi Venna and Saanvi Venna. The victims — a grandmother and her 10-monthold granddaughter — were found dead in the Marquis Apartments complex in an apparent botched kidnapping for ransom that started on Oct. 22, 2012.
“Without being permitted to contact his wife or anyone else, the defendant was driven directly to Upper Merion Police Department then was illegally coerced into giving a series of statements,” Heckman wrote in the motion.
Played in court during his preliminary hearing in November, Yandamuri appears in a 23-minute-long videotaped interview with police, where he can be heard saying, “I know this is not a small mistake. I had a good job, a good life. I really feel sorry for what I did.”
In March, Yandamuri pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and third-degree murder, kidnapping, burglary, robbery and abuse of a corpse.
“Said statements were the result of prior illegal police conduct and were, therefore, tainted by that illegality,” Heckman wrote in the motion. “Said statements were taken after coercion and undue influences placed upon the defendant by law enforcement authorities, as part of the long, 17hour interrogation process. Defendant was denied sleep and food and was too tired to completely comprehend the situation, and in fact was lying on the floor at one point while answering questions.”
On Monday, Heckman filed two other pretrial motions on behalf of his client, including asking a judge to bar the imposition of the death penalty, a motion for continuance of trial and change of venue, citing extensive local media coverage of the Yandamuri case as being “prejudicial.”
When police were called to the Marquis Apartments on Oct. 22, they found Satyavathi Venna lying in a pool of her own blood in the kitchen, her neck sliced open. The grandmother had been babysitting Saavni Venna when Yandamuri allegedly arrived at the apartment armed with a kitchen knife and 10 copies of a garbled ransom note. Saavni Venna’s lifeless body was later found in an unused men’s locker room sauna, a handkerchief stuffed in her mouth. Prosecutors allege Yandamuri was desperate for money to repay a litany of gambling debts, knew the Vennas had money and planned to kidnap the little girl as blackmail.