Sacramento Man Sentenced After Driving Cross-Country To Murder His Wife

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) -- A California man who shot to death his estranged wife and another person inside a New Jersey church has been sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.

Joseph Pallipurath of Sacramento also received a consecutive 20-year sentence for attempted murder when he was sentenced Friday.

Pallipurath was convicted last month of murdering 24-year-old Reshma James and 25-year-old Dennis Mallooseril, a bystander who tried to help her. He had also been convicted of attempted murder for shooting another woman.

Prosecutors say Pallipurath drove across the country to confront his wife, who had left to escape what relatives say was an abusive marriage. She was killed in the vestibule of St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton in 2008.

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