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Dec 3, 2008 9:06 pm US/Central
Death Penalty Sought Against Man Who Burned Sons
WHEATON, Ill. (STNG) ―
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Kaushik Patel, 34, is charged with his setting his sons on fire.
CBS
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Vishv and Om Patel were doused with gasoline and severely burned inside their Glendale Heights home. Police say their father is a suspect in the case.
CBS
DuPage County prosecutors want the death penalty — not a life sentence — for the Glendale Heights dad charged with fatally burning his two young sons last year.
Prosecutors rejected a plea deal that would have sent to prison for life the suburban man charged with dousing his sons with gasoline, then setting them on fire.
The decision announced in court Wednesday means prosecutors will seek a death sentence for 35-year-old Kaushik Patel if he is convicted of murdering his sons in their west suburban home on Nov. 18, 2007.
Patel's trial is scheduled to begin April 21.
Trying to avoid a death sentence, Patel had offered to plead guilty to the murders of his sons, 4-year-old Om and 7-year-old Vishv, in return for a life sentence.
DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller said prosecutors have rejected that offer.
"They declined to accept our offer of a guilty plea in return for natural life [in prison]," Miller said.
State's Attorney Joseph Birkett declined to say why his prosecutors refused the plea deal, except to note that his office in July formally filed notice to seek a death sentence if Patel is convicted.
"That's been the status of the case — that hasn't changed," Birkett said.
Patel contended in an interview after his arrest that he was trying to kill himself — not his sons — when he poured gasoline on himself in a bathroom of the home, then lit the fluid with a lighter. Patel, who was badly burned in the blaze and spent nearly three months recovering in a hospital, insisted the children surprised him by entering the room just as he ignited the blaze.
Both boys suffered widespread burns. Om died on Jan. 17, his older brother died a month later on Feb. 19.
Patel remains jailed on $10 million bail.
(Source: Sun-Times News Group Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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