A Chicago man has reached an agreement with county prosecutors and will plead guilty to setting his two sons on fire to avoid the death penalty.
35-year-old Kaushik Patel will plead guilty to the 2007 murders of 4-year-old Om and 7-year-old Vishv making him ineligible for capital punishment a prosecution decided Friday.
Prosecutors say on November 18, 2007 Patel doused his two sons and himself in gasoline and then lit them on fire.
He says however that it was a suicide attempt and he did not mean to harm his children so he drove them to a relative’s house who called 911 for help.
The boys’ mother Nishaben Patel testified against her husband saying that the 7-year-old told her that the father set them on fire on purpose before the child succumbed to his injuries and died.
Police also report that the children suffered far worse injuries than him and he made an incriminating statement to a relative admitting that it was a failed murder-suicide.
There will be a sentence hearing for Patel on May 18.
Patel who was recovering from his injuries when this picture was taken had been seeking a way out out of the death penalty for years before prosecutors reached this settlement.
4-year-old Om and 7-year-old Vishv
