Joseph Pallipurath
Joseph Pallipurath gets
two life terms for New
Jersey church killings
ARTHUR J PAIS
For weeks during his trial,
Joseph Pallipurath sat stoically
in a court in Patterson, New
Jersey, steadfastly avoiding
looking at the relatives of
Reshma James, his estranged
wife, who he shot down in a
church along with a man who
tried to help her.
But last week, when the judge
sentenced him to two consecu-
tive life terms without parole,
he was trembling when he
declared, ‘I didn’t intend to do
it, but I had no control over
myself that day. I am truly sorry.’
Judge Salem Vincent Ahto
told Pallipurath, ‘I try to under-
stand the best I can what moti-
vates a person… I come to the
conclusion that there are just
some individuals who are cold-
blooded killers, and you are one
of them.’
The killings took place in the
vestibule of the St Thomas
Syrian Orthodox Knanaya
Church, Clifton, New Jersey, the
Monday before Thanksgiving in
2008. Pallipurath, who fled to
Georgia, was arrested in a small
town there within two days.
His court-appointed defense
had argued that he had not
planned to kill anyone, even
though he carried a gun with
him as he drove days from
Sacramento, California, to con-
front Reshma. The defense had
said he was overcome by emo-
tions when he met her.
PARESH GANDHI
Jewelers get prison term for fake heist
ARTHUR J PAIS
Jewelers Mahaveer Kankariya and Atul
Shah, sentenced last week to a 20 months
to three years prison term for staging a fake
robbery at their Manhattan store, had faced
a stiffer sentence of 25 years. But now, with
good behavior, they can get out in less than
two years.
The diamond heist story grabbed nation-
al attention because of its comedic ele-
ments. Some compared it to the absurdist
scenes in David Mamet’s crime films.
Kankariya’s company, Real Creations,
which dealt in jewelry, and Shah’s business,
Dialite Imports, which bought and sold
loose diamonds, had both lost money in
business. They hired men to dress up as
Hasidic Jews and stage a robbery at their
store. Hasidic Jews, who typically sport
beards and black hats, dominate the dia-
mond business in New York.
State Supreme Court Justice Thomas
Farber jailed both jewelers, who had been
free on bond, though Shah’s lawyer had
insisted that his client had nothing to do
with Kankariya’s plans.
The duo was convicted in March.
Before the sentencing, Shah asked the
judge for mercy. ‘I will live with the fact
that I have brought this sin and terrible
hardship on my entire family,’ he reported-
ly said. ‘I am begging your honor for mercy
so that I will be able to see my parents
before they die.’
Justice Farber acknowledged that the two
men were raised in good families, but he
also said they should have known lying and
stealing was wrong. ‘I believe I am dealing
with men who are basically good people
who did bad things,’ he said before sentenc-
ing them. ‘I have two people in front of me
who were raised in loving and supportive
families and who should have known the
difference between right and wrong — who
were raised to appreciate that you don’t lie,
and you don’t steal.’
No one else has been arrested for the
crime, though there are speculations that
the men hired to stage the robbery cooper-
ated with the authorities against Shah and
Kantariya.
