Indian man gets life sentence for wife's gruesome murder
Houston (PTI): An Indian man was sentenced to life imprisonment in the US state of Florida for the gruesome murder of his wife in 2020 in the parking lot of a hospital where she was working as a nurse, according to a media report.
Philip Mathew on Friday pleaded no contest to the first-degree murder of Merin Joy, his wife who was planning an escape from an abusive relationship, The Sun Sentinel newspaper reported.
The plea deal spared him from the possibility of a death sentence, the report said.
In 2020, Joy, 26, then a nurse at Broward Health Coral Springs, was stabbed 17 times. Police said Mathew blocked her car in with his, slashed her repeatedly, and then drove over her body on the ground before driving off, police said.
One of her co-workers would later say Mathew drove over her "like she was a speed bump," and as employees rushed to her aid, Joy could only cry to them over and over: "I have a baby."
Before she died, police said, she revealed her attacker's identity.
On Friday, Mathew also pleaded no contest to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He was immediately sentenced to life in state prison with no possibility of release, plus a maximum of five years for the aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The decision was made to waive the death penalty because of the certainty of the life sentence and because the defendant was giving up his right to appeal, said Paula McMahon, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office.
Joy's family remains devastated by their profound loss.
Joby Philip, a cousin on Joy's side of the family, watched Friday's hearing on Zoom from where he lives in Tampa, then translated the outcome to her family.
Joy's mother is "glad to know her daughter's killer would remain the rest of his years in jail and she's relieved to know the legal process is over," he said Friday.
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Karnataka to witness heavy rain for next 10 days
Bengaluru: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the southwest monsoon will cause heavy rainfall likely this weekend and will drench Karnataka over the next 10 days.
The monsoon has begun retreating from northwestern India. Conditions remain active over the south, with an upper air trough extending up to 1.5 km over North Interior Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu, combined with weakening monsoon winds across the peninsula, is driving the current spell. N. Puviarasan, head of the IMD’s meteorological centre in Bengaluru, said in a conversation with Deccan Herald, “As a result, the whole of Karnataka will see rain over the next week to 10 days."
With a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean along with a low-pressure system over the north Bay of Bengal, the monsoon is expected to intensify during the next four days. IMD has predicted heavy rains across South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru, throughout the weekend.
Bengaluru, recorded widespread moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday. Between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm, Bengaluru city logged 45.9 mm of rain accompanied by thunderstorms. HAL airport registered 6 mm and the Bengaluru Urban automatic station recorded 47.5 mm. Doddathoguru, near Electronics City, reported 55 mm.
According to IMD forecast heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Yadgir, Koppal, Raichur, Ramanagara and Mandya districts in the next few days.
The southwest monsoon is now expected to extend until mid-October and with little or no break in between, the northeast monsoon is likely to follow immediately. These are expected to last until December. “There may be no break in between,” Puviarasan said.
