VIJAYAWADA: Raghunandan Yandamuri, a 32-year-old Telugu techie convicted of the murder of a 10-month-old and her grandmother Satyavathi Venna in the USA, will be executed on February 23, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said on Thursday.
Yandamuri, who will be administered lethal injection, is the first Indian-American to be awarded capital punishment.
He is currently lodged in a maximum security prison in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. On October 22, 2012, Yandamuri stabbed Satyavathi fatally when she resisted the kidnap of her granddaughter at an apartment complex in Montegary county.
He took the baby away, but later killed her by stuffing a handkerchief in her mouth and wrapping a towel around her head to stop her from crying. Yandamuri then attended a candlelight vigil held in memory of the deceased and distributed pamphlets seeking information on the missing baby. Police later found the child’s body dumped in a suitcase in a sauna of a gymnasium.
A week later, he was arrested and during the course of the investigation it was found that he had attempted a kidnap. Investigators zeroed in on him with the help of nicknames he used in the ransom note he left behind seeking $50,000. Though the execution date is set, he may get a reprieve thanks to a 2015 moratorium on death penalty in Pennsylvania.