A U.S. appeals court has affirmed the decision and punishment for one of the individuals convicted of facilitating illegal immigration, resulting in the tragic deaths of a family of four from India who froze to death while trying to cross the Manitoba-U.S. border in 2022.
Earlier this year, Harshkumar Patel had sought to have his guilty verdict and sentence overturned following a conviction by a Minnesota jury in November 2024. Patel, an Indian citizen, received a sentence of slightly over 10 years in prison after his apprehension in Chicago in 2024.
He was found to have orchestrated the smuggling scheme and enlisted his co-defendant, Steve Shand, a resident of Florida, to transport the migrants once they crossed from Manitoba into Minnesota.
In a ruling issued on Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the sentencing decision of the lower court and determined there was ample evidence to support the jury’s findings.
A three-judge panel dismissed Patel’s challenges to the district court’s sentencing calculations as lacking substance and concluded that the court had not erred in applying enhancements for endangering lives or causing death.
The court rejected Patel’s assertion that the charges against him were duplicative and multiple, noting that he had not raised these issues for appeal.
The bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife Vaishali, 37, their daughter Vihangi, 11, and son Dharmik, 3, were discovered in a snow-covered field in Manitoba, just 12 meters from the U.S. border, on January 19, 2022.
A pending court hearing will address arguments from Shand’s attorney, who is also seeking to challenge his conviction and sentence. The hearing is scheduled for October 23 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Harshkumar Patel, who is not connected to the deceased Patel family, is expected to be repatriated to India following the completion of his prison term.
