Deaths at Manitoba border: phone and bank records shown to jury

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. –

Closing arguments were made at the trial of two men accused of smuggling immigrants across the border between Manitoba and Minnesota.

Prosecutor Michael McBride told the jury that Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel valued money over people’s lives and sent the immigrants hiking for hours in deadly weather.

The men are accused of being part of several operations at the border in December 2021 and January 2022.

On January 19, 2022, a family of four, including two children, coming from India froze to death while trying to cross the border in a snowstorm.

Patel’s attorney told the jury that the defendant was misidentified and was not the same person who called and texted about the trips in phone records compiled by the government.

Shand’s lawyer told the jury that his client was a naive participant who made money driving a taxi and did not know he was doing anything illegal.

The prosecution alleges Patel and Shand were part of a smuggling ring that brought people to Canada from India on student visas and then secretly smuggled them across the U.S. border.

Prosecutors said Patel would stay in Florida or nearby states and organize work, while Shand would fly to Minneapolis, drive to areas near the border and pick up people after they crossed from Canada.

On January 19, 2022, U.S. Border Patrol agents located a van driven by Shand and several adult immigrants in rural Minnesota. The discovery of a migrant’s backpack containing children’s clothes and nappies prompted another search.

Hours later, RCMP found the bodies of the family: Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben Patel, 37; Their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son Dharmik. The boy’s body was in his father’s arms. Patel is a household name in India and the family is not related to the others involved in the case.

Phone, banking and other information was presented to the jury early Thursday; The prosecution shows the two defendants frequently discussed plans to sneak people across the border.

A cellular analyst with the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified about records showing that two phones allegedly belonging to Shand traveled multiple times from his hometown in Florida to Minnesota and then to an area near the border.

FBI special agent Nicole Lopez said that during those trips, numerous calls were made to phones that the prosecution said belonged to Patel.

Under cross-examination by Shand’s attorney, Lopez said cell records based on the towers used provide a general location and cannot provide pinpoint accuracy.

Shand’s lawyer also said the evidence did not prove his client used the phone.

“You don’t know who actually has the cell phone at any given time, do you?” Aaron Morrison asked.

“That’s right,” Lopez replied.

The hearing in Fergus Falls, Minn., also heard Thursday from two forensic pathologists who testified that the family found dead at the border died of hypothermia.

A pathologist said autopsies had to be done a few days later because the bodies were so frozen.

Prosecutors spent some time Thursday connecting Patel to similar names on various documents.

The phone allegedly belonging to Patel is listed under Dirty Harry on the phone allegedly belonging to Shand. Phone company records show that one of the phones allegedly belonging to Patel was registered to Haresh Patel.

A special agent with Homeland Security testified that the phone number attributed to Dirty Harry was the same phone number used by Harshkumar Patel in a government document four years ago. The Dirty Harry number was also used to open a bank account under the name Haresh Patel in 2018, special agent Manuel Jimenez said.

Jimenez also presented bank records showing a large sum of money was deposited during the 2022 border crossings into an account Shand allegedly maintained in his hometown in Florida.

The jury is scheduled to receive instructions from the judge on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.