Alleged human smugglers motivated by money in case where family died crossing Manitoba-U.S. border: prosecutor

Prosecutors say the case boils down to one thing: two men putting profit above people’s lives in a human smuggling scheme that led to the deaths of a family from India in 2022.

That’s the story that was put forth to jurors in a Minnesota courtroom Monday afternoon, as the long-awaited trial of Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel got underway.

The trial comes nearly three years after the 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 field just 12 metres from the U.S. border, after they tried to walk across the boundary during a blizzard.

The Indian family’s bodies were found on Jan. 19, 2022. The temperature that day was –23 C, but the wind chill was between –35 and –38.

Patel (no relation to the family) was arrested in Chicago in February 2024. Shand was arrested by U.S. border patrol agents on a highway in Minnesota, just south of the Canadian border near Emerson, Man., with other Indian migrants in the van he was driving around the same time the Patel family’s bodies were discovered.

The men have pleaded not guilty to several counts related to human smuggling. Their trial is scheduled to take approximately five days in Fergus Falls, Minn., about 80 kilometres southeast of Fargo, N.D. — the closest federal courthouse to where the incident happened.

Prosecutor Ryan Lipes walked jurors through the details of the Patel family’s final movements during opening statements Monday, focusing often on Dharmik, the young boy who Lipes said was found frozen alongside the rest of his family, his father’s hand still covering his face from trying in vain to protect him from the cold that would take all their lives.

WATCH | CBC reporter Caitlyn Gowriluk explains as trial begins at U.S. federal courthouse in Minnesota:

Lipes told jurors they’ll hear evidence during the men’s trial, including text messages, that show Shand and Patel knew about the dangers of the extreme weather they’re alleged to have sent the family and a group of other Indian migrants out into.

And the reason he said they did it?

“You’re going to see the answer was money,” Lipes told jurors.

The proceedings had previously been delayed, including last year, when lawyers asked for an extension in Shand’s case, citing its complexity and the desire to avoid multiple trials if more charges were laid.

That came before Patel was indicted in the case earlier this year, at which point Shand was also indicted on additional charges.

Unsuspecting cab driver, wrongfully accused immigrant

However, lawyers for the accused told jurors much different stories.

Shand’s lawyer described him as an unsuspecting cab driver who only knew his co-accused because Patel would sometimes hire him to drive his associates around Florida, where they both lived.

When those requests started to take Shand further north, he didn’t have reason to question it at first, federal defender Lisa Lopez said — especially since at first Shand wasn’t picking people up in places immediately next to the border.

“He thought he was just driving a cab,” Lopez told jurors. “Because that’s what he does for a living.”

By the time Shand realized something was off, she said, it was too late.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Patel — who is still in custody and was brought in and out of court in handcuffs — said investigators got the wrong guy altogether.

“There will be no witness who will say that Harsh Patel conspired with anyone,” defence lawyer Thomas Leinenweber told jurors. “That evidence doesn’t exist.”

Leinenweber said Patel came to the U.S. from India for the same reason many do — because they see it as a land of opportunity.

And while the lawyer said his client was unlucky in ending up wrongfully accused there of crimes he didn’t commit, Leinenweber said Patel is also in a way the “luckiest man in the world” because he came to a country where he has the right to a fair trial, and to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Lawyers also made arguments Monday on whether the jury deciding the trial should be shown photos of the Patel family’s frozen bodies.

Aaron Morrison, Shand’s other lawyer, said the photos would “cause extreme prejudice” for the jury. But the prosecution said the photos were necessary to show the family was given inadequate clothing for the bone-chilling weather. The photos also show that the boots worn by the family matched boots worn by other migrants, the prosecution said.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim ruled the photos can be shown during the trial.

Juror questions

Jury selection in the trial Monday saw a group of more than 60 possible jurors from across northwest Minnesota whittled down to the 12 who will decide the case plus two alternates, as the judge asked them questions over several hours about their views on immigration, law enforcement and other topics.

Two people raised their hands when asked whether they had strong opinions about the immigration system that might affect them.

One man raised his hand when the judge asked whether anyone had unpleasant experiences with immigrants.

Several were excused because they said they didn’t think they could be impartial in the case, including some who said they’d been following it closely and others who said they would be biased by the fact that it involves the deaths of young children.

Jurors were also asked whether they had worked in law enforcement, whether they have had bad experiences with law enforcement, where they get their news and other questions.

Allegations in trial brief

The prosecution’s trial brief filed last month outlined their case against Patel and Shand, including allegations they smuggled dozens of individuals across the Canada-U.S. border as part of a large, systematic human smuggling operation that brought Indian nationals to Canada on student visas and then smuggled them into the U.S.

Shand and Patel — in co-ordination with co-conspirators in Canada — managed the Manitoba to Minnesota crossings, prosecutors allege. Patel co-ordinated with smugglers in Canada to determine locations, dates and numbers of migrants, the document says.

Harshkumar Patel, who prosecutors say had a number of aliases, including “Dirty Harry,” is alleged to have hired and paid Shand to meet and transport the migrants once they crossed the border into the U.S.

The family who died near the border was part of a group of 11 Indian nationals all trying to make the same journey across in January 2022.

To date, no one in Canada is facing charges. An RCMP spokesperson said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made.

Prosecutors say they intend to call several witnesses during the trial, including law enforcement officers who responded to the scene and investigated the scheme.

Two Canadian forensic pathologists are also expected to testify about the Patel family’s autopsies.

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

One or more of the migrants who were part of the same group as the Patel family may also be called as witnesses, the trial brief says.

The trial will start hearing evidence Tuesday.