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Accused in Dunkin' Donut Murders Found Guilty

Despite his protestations that he abhorred violence, and the police had extorted a murder confession from him, 27-year old Trone Tyrone Ashford was found guilty on June 17 in the slaying of two low-paid Indian immigrants last year. Ashford could get a death sentence for the slayings.

The robbery that followed the murders got Ashford and his two friends $ 100. The three -- along with a fourth person who sat in the car outside the Dunkin' Donuts shop -- were on their way to buy cocaine.

Prosecutors painted Ashford as the leader of the group and the killer but he had insisted in the court that he was in the toilet when the shots rang, and his lawyers tried to blame his associate John Lemon Epps, 20, for killing Kanu Patel, 28, and Mukesh Patel, 35.

Ashvin Patel, 44, who was wounded in the abdomen and left arm, was left for dead; he was rescued by fire-fighters who arrived to fight the blaze. All three men were recent immigrants. Each made about $ 6 per hour.

The killings roused the Indian community as never before and people who hardly knew the three men raised over $ 100,000 to help their families. At the prayer meeting for the three men, clergymen from African American and white communities joined in and embraced Indian participants, offering consolation. The arrests of three suspects came in about 60 hours after the murders.

Soon after the verdict this week prosecutor Jack B Johnson said. "Ultimately, they (the jury) found he's a killer."

The prosecutors had told the jurors that they had recovered the murder weapon, a shotgun, in Ashford's home, and several of his friends including 17-year-old Alicia N Holloway who turned a witness for the prosecution testified, that he had boasted of killing three people.

Kevin Shiplett, 20, who was riding in the car with Ashford and his two accomplices, did not go into the doughnut shop. He testified last week repeating Holloway's statement about Ashford's boast.

According to the prosecutors while Ashford shot the three men in a backroom of the shop, co-defendant Epps poured gasoline in the shop and set it on fire. Epps's trial is expected to start soon.

Prosecutors also say that Holloway grabbed the money from the cash register. She has pleaded guilty June 4 to two counts of felony murder and could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Circuit Court Judge E Allen Shepherd will start the penalty phase of the trial next week.

The jury deliberated for about 10 hours on June 16 and 17 before it reached the verdict. They had heard evidence for nine days during which the prosecution presented them Ashford's signed statement to police investigators admitting that he committed the shootings.

Ashford's lawyer argued later that the confession was forced out of his client after the police questioned him for over 13 hours. Ashford said he suffered from acute back pain and he did not have access to medication during the questioning. Worn out, he said he signed the confession.

He also told the court that he had gone into the shop to buy donuts and was shocked to see Epps draw the gun and announce a robbery.

Scared he went into the bathroom Ashford said, kept himself low when he heard the shots. The witnesses against him were lying, he asserted.

The detectives who questioned Ashford denied he had told them about his medical condition, nor had he complained, they said.

Following the murders last year, members of the Indian community raised over $ 100,000 to help the families of the two dead men. The fund raising, initiated by hotel owner Kishor Kaswala began soon after a prayer service was held outside the shop. Part of the money went for the medical expenses of Ashvin Patel who was not able to walk for many months and suffered from continual nightmares.

"This is really the first time that all members of our community have gotten together for one common purpose," Kaswala had said last year. "We have people from different parts of India, from different communities and different income levels contributing. We have never raised money like this."

Dunkin' Donuts donated $ 20,000 to the two families immediately after the murders. And Jay Patel, the owner of the store where the men were killed, offered $ 1,000. And then, "everyone started offering money," Kaswala said.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Dunkin' Donut Murder Trial Continues
Dunkin' Donut Double Murder Trial Opens
Washington mourns murdered Indians

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