Convicted human smuggler gets 10 years in prison after family froze to death at Manitoba-U.S. border

One of two men convicted after a family of four from India froze to death trying to cross the border from Manitoba into the U.S. in 2022 has been sentenced to just over 10 years in prison.

Harshkumar Patel was given a sentence of 121 months in a Minnesota court on Wednesday afternoon.

The Indian national and his co-accused, Florida resident Steve Shand, were convicted in November after being found guilty on four charges each related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S. and profiting from it.

The bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife, Vaishali, 37; their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi; and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a field in Manitoba, about 12 metres from the U.S. border, on Jan. 19, 2022. The temperature that day was –23 C, but the wind chill made it feel like –35 to –38.

Harshkumar Patel — who is not related to the family — was arrested in Chicago in February 2024. Prosecutors said he co-ordinated the smuggling and hired Shand to transport them.

The 121-month sentence is at the top range of sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of more than 19 years for Patel.

Shand is set to be sentenced later this afternoon. 

More to come

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Two men convicted of human smuggling in a case where a family of four from India froze to death trying to cross the border from Manitoba into the U.S. in 2022 are expected to learn their fates in a Minnesota courthouse on Wednesday.

Sentencing hearings for Florida resident Steve Shand and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago, are scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Fergus Falls, Minn., after the men were convicted there in November.

The jury who heard their case deliberated for less than 90 minutes before returning with guilty verdicts on all four of the charges each man faced related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it. 

The sentencings come more than three years after four members of the Patel family (who were not related to Harshkumar Patel) died while trying to walk across the border.

The frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishali, 37, their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi, and their three-year-old son, Dharmik, were found in a snow-drifted Manitoba field about 12 metres from the U.S. border on Jan. 19, 2022.