Man who gave a gun to kill Sikh grocer sentenced to prison in US

New York, March 18

A 22-year-old American has been sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 36 months of supervised release for selling a stolen handgun to a teenager who used it to kill an Indian-origin Sikh grocer in 2021.

Taydon Tailor Law, 22, of Ogden provided a Ruger LC9, 9mm firearm to Antonio Gianny Garcia, then 15, who entered Super Grocery on February 28, 2021, and fatally shot 65-year-old Satnam Singh from Punjab.

In a plea bargain made last year in US District Court, Law pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, the maximum sentence for which is five years in prison, the Standard-Examiner reported.

Law stole the Ruger and ammunition from a home where he was working, according to the US Attorney's Office.

"The US Attorney's Office for the District of Utah will continue to prosecute cases where individuals illegally possess and transfer firearms putting our citizens at risk," US Attorney Trina A. Higgins, said in a statement.

Garcia, who took the firearm from Law, pleaded guilty to two first-degree felonies in the shooting and is serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life in prison.

Punjab-born Singh immigrated to the US in 1987 and purchased Super Grocery in 2000.

The robbery and subsequent killing shook Singh's family who is survived by wife and three daughters.

Garcia walked into the store late at night, selected a few items, drew the handgun and told Singh, "This is a stickup," then fired several times. Singh was hit three times and died in the store, the Standard-Examiner reported.

Garcia told police he robbed the store because he "did not have as much cash as he wanted."

Singh's teenage daughter asked a judge to send her father's killer to life in prison, saying Garcia deserves "life in prison and he should never see sunlight."

She told The Examiner that her father's death was "the worst thing. We were best friends and he was the person I loved best in the whole world. He made me feel so loved and protected."

"This pain is never going to go away," she had said.

--IANS