Two men convicted of human smuggling in a case where a family of four from India froze to death trying to cross the border from Manitoba into the U.S. in 2022 are expected to learn their fates in a Minnesota courthouse on Wednesday.
Sentencing hearings for Florida resident Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago, are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Fergus Falls, Minn., after the men were convicted there in November.
The jury who heard their case deliberated for less than 90 minutes before returning with guilty verdicts on all four of the charges each man faced related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it.
The sentencings come more than three years after four members of the Patel family (who were not related to Harshkumar Patel) died while trying to walk across the border.
The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a snow-drifted Manitoba field about 12 metres from the U.S. border on Jan. 19, 2022.
The temperature that day was –23 C, but the wind chill made it feel like –35 to –38.
Shand was arrested near the border around the same time with other Indian nationals in the van he was driving.
Prosecutors have asked that Shand be sentenced to over 10 years in prison, saying evidence presented at trial showed he knew how dangerous the cold weather could be and still kept going back to drive more migrants.
Harshkumar Patel, who prosecutors said co-ordinated the smuggling and hired Shand, was arrested in Chicago in February 2024.
Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of more than 19 years for Patel, arguing he’s never shown remorse for his actions and continues to deny his involvement.
Patel’s lawyers argued he was wrongfully accused in the case, while Shand’s described their client as an unsuspecting cab driver duped by Patel into shuttling migrants into the U.S. after they walked across the international border illegally.
Lawyers for both men have asked for lower sentences than what prosecutors are seeking.
Last month, a judge rejected requests to acquit or order new trials for the men, whose lawyers had argued the evidence against their clients was insufficient.
Human smugglers to be sentenced in death of family near Manitoba-U.S. border
