Jury selection begins in Minnesota case of two men charged after family’s death across Manitoba-US border

The trial in Minnesota of two men accused of helping to smuggle people across the US-Canada border, including four members of an Indian family who died in Manitoba while trying to cross in 2022, begins this morning with jury selection.

Jurors will likely be summoned from different parts of Minnesota to try the case, which comes nearly three years after the murders of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, and their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son. The eldest son, Dharmik, was found in a snowdrift about 12 meters from the US border.

Their bodies were found on January 19, 2022, after they tried to cross the border in the snow. The temperature that day was 23 C, but the cold was between 35 and 38.

Two Florida men – Harshkumar Patel, who is not related to the victims, and Steve Shand – were charged earlier this year by US prosecutors in connection with the case.

Patel was arrested in Chicago in February 2024. Shand was arrested in Jan. 19, 2022, by US border police on a highway in Minnesota, just south of the Canadian border near Emerson, Man.

The men face multiple charges related to human trafficking. They denied the crime.

CBC News is in Minnesota this week for the men’s trial, which is scheduled to last about five days in Fergus Falls, about 80 kilometers southeast of Fargo, ND – the closest federal court to where the incident took place.

The family that died near the border was part of a group of 11 Indians who were attempting to undertake the same journey in January 2022.

Harshkumar Patel, who prosecutors say had several aliases, including “Dirty Harry,” allegedly hired and paid Shand to meet and transport migrants once they crossed the border into the US.

A prosecutor’s indictment filed last month outlined their case against Patel and Shand, including the alleged smuggling of large numbers of people across the Canada-US border as part of a larger human trafficking operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on student visas and were trafficked. they entered the US

Shand and Patel – in collaboration with conspirators in Canada – controlled the lands from Manitoba to Minnesota, prosecutors said. Patel worked with smugglers in Canada to determine the locations, dates and numbers of the immigrants, the document said.

So far, no one in Canada has been charged. An RCMP spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

US prosecutors say they intend to call more witnesses during the trial, including law enforcement who responded to the scene and investigated the program.

Two Canadian medical examiners are also expected to testify about the Patel family’s autopsy.

Prosecutors say the man was part of a larger smuggling conspiracy and sent many of the migrants on Jan. 19. Manitoba to cross into Minnesota and he may testify.

One or more of the migrants who belonged to the same group as the Patel family may also be called as witnesses, the case report said.