The Montgomery County, PA court system will conduct Raghunandan Yandamuri’s formal arraignment process on January 16, 2013 via video conferencing to save money.
Raghunandan Yandamuri, who hails from the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, has been arrested and charged with the murders of his neighbors Satyavathi Venna (61) and her 10-month-old granddaughter Saanvi Venna.
Raghu Yandamuri’s arraignment via video conferencing means that people will not have the opportunity to see this Telugu bidda in flesh and blood until his sentencing.
Raghunandan Yandamuri’s twin murders has attracted considerable attention both within the Telugu community to which he belongs and the larger Indian community in the U.S.
Raghu’s arraignment is scheduled to take place at 9:30AM on January 16 in Video Room #2 of the Montgomery County court system in Bridgeport, PA.
Options at Video Arraignment
During the video arraignment, the charges will be formally read out to Raghunandan Yandamuri.
Raghu will then be asked how he intends to plead – Guilty, Not-Guilty or No Contest.
If Raghu pleads Not Guilty, he will drag this nightmare into a months-long trial.
If Raghunandan Yandamuri pleads Guilty or No Contest, the stage will then be set for the sentencing phase of the case.
Raghunandan Yandamuri could face the death penalty if he pleads guilty or is found guilty in a trial. Raghu will then have the dubious honor of being the first Indian to be sentenced to death in America.
Raghunandan Yandamuri is an Indian software programmer on a H1B visa.
Since this is a capital offense (a case eligible for death penalty), Raghu Yandamuri (26) has been denied bail and is currently cooling his heels in the Montgomery County prison.
Magisterial District Court judge James P.Gallagher allowed the case to proceed to trial during the Preliminary Hearing on November 28, 2012 on all 13 charges.
Video Conferencing in Montgomery County Courts
The Montgomery County court system has deployed video conferencing to reduce costs associated with transporting prisoners from the jail/prison to the court house and for security reasons.
In 2011, the Montgomery County court system conducted 1,858 video hearings between the jail and the courts.
The county court uses the video conferencing technology for arraignments, probation violation hearings and bench warrant revocations.
Time-Line of Raghunandan Yandamuri’s Case
* October 22, 2012 – Murder of Satyavathi Venna (61) and Kidnapping and Murder of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna
* October 26, 2012 – Arrested by detectives of the Montgomery County.
* October 26, 2012 – Preliminary Arraignment happened before Magisterial Judge James Gallagher at 2:30PM and remanded to custody without bail.
* November 28, 2012 – Preliminary Hearing held after being postponed twice.
* January 16, 2013 – Formal Arraignment via Videoconferencing in Video Room #2
Given his damning video confession and that he does not have a private legal team, it’s hard to see how Raghunandan Yandamuri can harbor hopes of an acquittal.
Related Posts:
Vennas Murder Case goes to Trial
Police Complaint Against Raghunandan Yandamuri
Understanding Raghu Yandamuri’s Case
Essential Facts about Raghunandan Yandamuri
If He Had Any Brains At All, Raghunandan Yandamuri Would Have Killed Himself
Telugu Gambler Raghunandan Yandamuri’s Crime Gamble Failed Big Time
Video Arraignment for Telugu Bidda Raghu Yandamuri on January 16, 2013 added by SearchIndia.com on
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Apparently, the motive for Raghu’s crime was not money alone.
It seems that there is more to the case than meets the eye.
Read this article for more details:
[Link Removed]
If the article in the above mentioned link is true, I strongly believe it is considering that no kidnapper will kill a child before getting the ransom, then Raghu definitely deserves brutal punishment.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. I am familiar with the article in the link you posted.
There is no evidence to support any of the stuff mentioned in the article.
I don’t usually remove links. But on this occasion I’m doing so for three reasons.
First, I have read the link/article you posted several times over the last five weeks and believe it is journalistic garbage of the worst kind.
Second, to publicize a link to such filth is to give credence to it.
Third, I have seen TV interviews conducted both in the U.S. and India that vehemently deny the theory posited in your link/article. Yes, I believe the interviewees in the TV snippets I watched.
Bottom line, I do not believe the theory/argument made in the article even 0.00001%. It is cheap, tawrdry, trashy fiction.
The writer of that article in the link you posted must have watched too many crappy Telugu films. 🙁
2. True, life is full of surprises and sometimes stranger than fiction but not in this instance.
The motive for the crime seems to be an obsession for quick money (evidenced by Raghunandan Yandamuri’s gambling impulses even in Pennsylvania after incurring $50,000 in gambling losses during his stay earlier in California).
I trust Raghu’s testimony on what happened to the baby.
It is the grandma portion that is unbelievable.
Or maybe he was dumb enough to think that the grandma wouldn’t recognize him with a hoodie.
In that case, he should be sentenced to death for being superdumb and then given the Darwin Award.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The “one-minute anger” that Raghunandan Yandamuri refers to in the video may have something to do with the altercation between him and grandma.
It’s not unreasonable to expect that she recognized Raghu and berated him for his actions prompting his volcanic eruption into that “one-minute anger” during which time which he killed her.
@Gandhiji and SI:
I never knew that the article in the link that I posted was fake. I assumed that there was some evidence found at the last moment and hence shared my opinion.
My apologies.
Second, I still can’t understand why Yandamuri would do the absurdly foolish thing of killing 2 people for just a few thousand dollars.
If he really wanted money so desperately, why couldn’t he rob a bank in his vicinty? That would have at least saved him the trouble of killing innocent people and might have even landed him with a lesser prison term, say 10-years.
Maybe his addiction to gambling made him a crazy bugger and killed his sanity leading to the murders.
Let his case be a lesson to all those prospective gamblers, especially Indians.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Let his case be a lesson to all those prospective gamblers, especially Indians.
Have casinos, ergo people will gamble.
We have more casinos than the rest of the world.
Casinos in America vs Casinos in the rest of the world