An Indian-American, known for organising local Bollywood concerts, has been convicted by a California jury of aggravated mayhem for paying three men to maim his ex-wife last year, leaving her with permanent facial injuries.
Rakesh Paul Singh, 55, a resident of Milpitas, California faces seven years to life imprisonment.
Sentencing has been scheduled for June 2.
In a statement, the Alameda County District Attorney Nancy E O'Malley held Singh responsible for attacking his ex-wife in Fremont, California on February 11, 2013.
On that date, his ex-wife was leaving her Fremont home when two men brutally assaulted her with hammer and knife.
As a result of the beating and slashing, the victim sustained multiple deep lacerations to her cheek, nose, and ear and had to undergo extensive and ongoing medical treatment, O'Malley said.
After a lengthy investigation led by Fremont Police Detective Armando Magana, it was discovered that the defendant had paid USD 500.00 to three co-conspirators to carry out the attack, O'Malley said.
Prior to the trial, the two attackers, Morris Kurtz and Donald Harbaugh, as well as Ricardo Rivera, the man who coordinated the attack, pled guilty to mayhem.
It is expected that Rivera will be sentenced to eight years in prison, Harbaugh to thirteen years and Kurtz to nine years for their roles in the crimes, the district attorney said.
Trial testimony revealed that Singh wanted the victim's face disfigured because he believed she was seeing another man and he insisted that the attack look like a robbery.
Although Singh and his ex-wife were divorced, they still had occasional contact with each other and Singh was upset that she wouldn't agree to re-establish her relationship with him, the prosecutor said.
Witnesses in the trial also testified that the defendant had orchestrated similar attacks on former business partners in the past in other jurisdictions, the district attorney alleged.
