Will Telugu Bidda Raghunandan Yandamuri Receive a New Year Gift?

By SearchIndia.com on December 30, 20136 Comments

Attorneys for Telugu bidda Raghunandan Yandamuri appeared before Judge Steven T O’Neill of the Montgomery County Court in Pennsylvania this morning to have his video confession and written statements suppressed.

At issue is whether Yandamuri’s video enactment of the crimes and other statements he made to the police of his alleged heinous crimes should be suppressed and not be heard by a jury if the case goes to trial.

Raghunandan Yandamuri is charged in the killings of 10-month-old Saanvi Venna and her 61-year-old grandmother Satyavathi Venna during a botched kidnapping and robbery in their King of Prussia apartment on October 22, 2012.

Coerced or Not Coerced

Yandamuri’s attorney Stephen Heckman argued that his client had been coerced into confessing to the killing and had not been properly advised on his rights when he was interviewed.

For Raghunandan Yandamuri, a lot is at stake in the bizarre video enactment and statements he made to the police.

In the video, Yandamuri enacted the sequence of events of the crimes and toward the end of the interview admitted:

I don’t want to harm anyone but I harmed two people….I’m really sorry for what happened. …It’s a one-minute anger which I haven’t controlled myself. Because I have a good career, good job, good wife, good parents and everything. But it’s only one-minute which ruined my complete life now. I really feel sorry for what happened. I know the pain the parents and everyone are going through. I know this is not a small mistake and no one will forgive me. But I don’t even have words how to express my problem.

Although Yandamuri’s video enactment of the crimes and statements to Pennsylvania police officers seem non-coerced and authentic, it may not be legally admissible if Pennsylvania police goofed up the procedures leading to the interview.

The video and statements are extremely self-damning despite Yandamuri’s claims in the video that the killings were accidental.

In a recent interview with a Telugu news channel and now in court motions, Yandamuri claims his confession last year was coerced by the police and was unhappy that the video had been leaked to the public.

According to Raghunandan Yandamuri’s television interview, the confession was made only to save his wife and be able to meet her. He went on to argue that his confession was not legally valid.

Yandamuri also lashed out at the Pennsylvania police in the TV interview for not following up on his leads to the involvement of other people in the crimes.

Miranda Rights – Crucial Issue

In court today, Montgomery County Police Detective Paul Bradbury said he read Yandamuri his Miranda rights when he began to suspect that he was lying.

Bradbury told the court that Yandamuri was not under arrest when he was read his Miranda rights.

When Yandamuri was read his Miranda rights becomes extremely important because the video confession and statements he made are highly damning should they be allowed to be seen by a jury.

Detective Bradbury told the court he had been initially satisfied with Yandamuri’s written statements but questioned him in detail again at the urging of FBI agents.

It seems there had been contradictions in the accounts of Yandamuri and his wife as to his whereabouts on October 22, 2012, the date of the crimes.

Bradbury seemed to acknowledge that Yandamuri was not a suspect until late in the night of October 25, 2012.

Police statements should not be taken at face value since there have been several reported incidents of shoddy investigations and misconduct on their part.

A recent New Yorker article (December 9, 2013) suggests that police interrogation tactics have on occasion lead to false confessions by innocent people in the U.S.

Hearing Adjourned

Judge Steven O’Neill did not decide today on whether Yandamuri’s video confession and statements should be suppressed.

Instead, the Judge adjourned the hearing to 9:30AM, January 2, 2014.

On Thursday, January 2, Yandamuri’s attorney will cross-examine Detective Paul Bradbury.

The prosecution is seeking the death penalty for Raghunandan Yandamuri.

If Judge O’Neill rules for suppression of the video confession and other statements it will be a major victory for Yandamuri and call for investigation into the interrogation tactics deployed by the Montgomery County Police.

6 Responses to "Will Telugu Bidda Raghunandan Yandamuri Receive a New Year Gift?"

rvasam January 2, 2014 at 2:55 pm

Just curious, why would police interrogate anyone (presumed innocent legally) in such a way that they would coerce someone to give out false confessions?

Is it because they just want to get their jobs finished fast, or is it their ego that prevents them from acquitting someone ??

I am not referring to Raghu’s case in specific, but in general, given the stats.

SearchIndia.com Responds:

It’s more complicated than what you write.

The New Yorker article I’ve linked to in the post is a subscription based publication. I’ll try to summarize the article in a couple of days.
Desimom99 January 3, 2014 at 4:59 pm

Oh! Wow!

I am reading that New Yorker article now and I hope the police in this case did everything correct and hope this bugger doesn’t get off because of some paperwork nonsense…

SearchIndia.com Responds:

The New Yorker piece makes for a very interesting read about how innocent people get jailed.

Did you get to read the full New Yorker article or just the excerpt?

It’s unlikely Yandamuri will get off although I can’t rule out some degree of police coercion or police stupidity in the way they interrogated him.
- Desimom99 January 3, 2014 at 5:09 pm
  
  I read the whole article.
  
  I have access to our University’s library system (one of the perks of working for one) so I get to read many magazines for “free” :)!
  
  SearchIndia.com Responds:
  
  Lucky you!
  
  New Yorker is the only print magazine I subscribe to now. Been a subscriber for nearly 6 years.
  
  Great magazine!
  
  In the last 18 months, they’ve had pieces on Nandan Nilekani (Infosys co-founder, Aadhar chief and possibly next Prime Minister of India), cattle fairs in Tamil Nadu, highway expansion in Tamil Nadu etc.
  
  Jhumpa Lahiri’s new book, The Lowland, was excerpted in the New Yorker before the book’s release.
  
  They also have superb investigative pieces by writers like Seymour Hersh, Jane Mayer etc.
  
  Pankaj Mishra is a frequent contributor to the magazine.
  - Desimom99 January 3, 2014 at 5:43 pm
    
    HA! May be I should read it more regularly now :)!
    
    I only read it if some one comments about an article…
Desimom99 January 3, 2014 at 5:08 pm

Wait what??!

I finished the article now and I feel horrible for Darrel Parker. What a horrible way his life turned out to be.

In the end I thought that may be he would die before he found out what had happened to his wife but I am glad he was at least able to get justice in the end…and what is the BS with attorney client privilege?

Shouldn’t there be a clause in there somewhere that if someone is willingly admitting to a crime then you have the obligation to report it..but wait in cases where someone has actually committed a crime and admit it to the attorney, the attorney could still lie about it, I suppose..wow..just wow..

SearchIndia.com Responds:

I wish other readers too could read the full New Yorker article.

Very insightful and informative article about how law enforcement/police/judicial system sometimes operates to the detriment of innocent people! 🙁
rvasam January 3, 2014 at 11:39 pm

Yeah the Miranda timing is critical but may get bypassed in really high profile federal offences. Check these below for some famous cases: It can mean a victory or defeat even in the most obvious cases.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-miranda_n_3159287.html

http://www.yp-lawyers.com/2013/07/06/miranda-rights-timing-is-everything/

http://abcnews.go.com/US/casey-anthony-timing-miranda-rights-questioned-caylee-case/t/story?id=13053308&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Furl%3Fsa%3Dt%26rct%3Dj%26q%3DMiranda%2520rights%2520timing%26source%3Dweb%26cd%3D6%26ved%3D0CEAQFjAF%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fabcnews.go.com%252FUS%252Fcasey-anthony-timing-miranda-rights-questioned-caylee-case%252Fstory%253Fid%253D13053308%26ei%3Dg47HUt7MOcT6oASM84L4DA%26usg%3DAFQjCNHsNSiyTO77ztXhcMIFnTU5vV-6RQ%26sig2%3DhGbgDHwPhswXT83y0zTu3A

SearchIndia.com Responds:

Besides Miranda warning, there are other issues here like the alleged threats by the police against Yandamuri’s wife, coercion etc.

Considering several past cases where police have acted illegally/engaged in gross misbehavior/used fake witnesses, the judge may well suppress the video and other statements if he has doubts that Yandamuri’s rights were violated.

In many respects, police here are no different from the Indian cops other than in color:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/nyregion/doubts-about-detective-haunt-50-murder-cases.html

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