Bollywood Promoter Gets 7 Years To Life For Brutal Attack On Ex-Wife
HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- Bollywood concert promoter Rakesh "Paul" Singh of Milpitas was sentenced on Monday to 7 years to life in state prison for hiring three men to brutally attack his ex-wife in front of her home in Fremont last year.
Singh, 55, was convicted on May 6 of mayhem and conspiracy to commit mayhem for the assault in the 43700 block of Greenhillis Way in Fremont at about 9 a.m. on Feb. 11, 2013.
Prosecutor Charles Wilson said testimony at Singh's trial disclosed that Singh wanted his ex-wife's face disfigured because he believed she was seeing another man and he told the attackers to make the assault look like a robbery.
Fremont police said Singh's ex-wife was getting into her car when two men Morris Kurtz, 53, and Donald Harbaugh, 55, approached and attacked her from behind with a hammer and a knife.
A third man, 28-year-old Ricardo Rivera, coordinated the attack, prosecutors said.
Singh paid the three men a total of $500, according to the evidence in the case.
Witnesses at Singh's trial testified that he had orchestrated similar attacks on former business partners in the past, including an attack on a partner that was carried out at a pizza restaurant, Wilson said.
As a result of being beaten and slashed, Singh's ex-wife suffered multiple deep lacerations to her cheek, nose and ears and had to undergo extensive and ongoing medical treatment, Wilson said.
Although Singh and his ex-wife were divorced at the time of the attack, they still had occasional contact with each other and he was upset that she wouldn't agree to re-establish her relationship with him, the prosecutor said.
The three men who Singh hired to attack his ex-wife previously pleaded no contest to mayhem and one of them testified against Singh, Wilson said.
Their plea agreements call for Harbaugh to be sentenced to 13 years in state prison, Kurtz to get 9 years and Rivera to get 8 years. The
three men are scheduled to be sentenced next week.
Singh must serve at least 7 years in state prison and won't be eligible for parole until 2020, Wilson said.
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