Kuchibhotla’s killer pleads guilty to three hate crimes

Washington, May 22 

A US Navy veteran who yelled “Get out of my country!” before killing Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla and injuring two others at a bar in Kansas City last year, has pleaded guilty to three federal hate-crime charges.

Adam Purinton, 53, who is already serving life in prison on a state murder charge, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Kansas City yesterday to three federal hate-crime charges alleging that he targeted the men “because of their actual and perceived race, colour, religion and national origin.”

He had earlier in March pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of 32-year-old Kuchibhotla and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in state court in the shootings of the Indian tech worker’s friend Madasani and a bystander. The US Attorney’s Office in Kansas had filed hate crime charges against Purinton last June.

Purinton, a white man, faced a possible death sentence for the federal charges. Under the plea, though, Purinton will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on each of the three counts, with the sentences to run consecutively to each other.

Kuchibhotla’s widow, Sunayana Dumala, did not attend the court hearing, but later released a statement thanking federal prosecutors and the FBI. — PTI