Of Hindu Moral Mess and Dr. Deepti Gupta Murder
Sid Harth
"I Killed Her to Save My Daughter" By J.M. SHENOY 11/14/2000
She did not like my wife. She absolutely hated the woman and she called
he “ that woman." And she said, "You know, I ... I'm going to ... I'm
going to get into a position where I will ... I will be the No. 1
woman." I didn't doubt that (she was pregnant). But she implied that I
was the father. And I said, "Well, that's ... that's impossible." And
she said, "Well, by the time it's known, you will be ruined." She said
that, along with the other stuff she had said before that, she said
that she knows where my daughter goes to school ... So when she said
that I ... I got ... I just ... I just lost it. His voice was calm and
collected. And yet as the tape played on in a court in Pasadena where
Dr Kevin Paul Anderson could to be sentenced to death in the murder of
his lover Deepti Gupta, the jurors listened to the confession in
chilled silence. Anderson’s daughter is eight-year-old. Anderson, 41,
is a pediatrician; so was Gupta, 33. Recorded soon after his arrest a
few miles from where Gupta’s body was found in the Angles National
Park, the confession went on for nearly 45 minutes. More excerpts: I
just grabbed her and I got ... I think I ... I was just choking her.
I ... I have a tie that I wore, a Snoopy tie, that I wore to work, but
I had taken it off by that time, but it was still in the truck and ...
and I grabbed it and I just started pulling it on her. Being a
physician, I know, I would check her pulse or something and I ... I
just didn't. I didn't even touch her. I just ... I just assumed that
she was (dead). So I thought, well, since we're up here, maybe ...
maybe I could make it look like it was an accident, like she drove off
the cliff or something, which was kind of inane. But, I mean, I
just ... in that state of mind I didn't ... I wasn't thinking, you
know, logically. The prosecutors ended their case on Monday in this
affluent city known for its world famous Rose Parade by letting the
jurors digest the contents of the Anderson’s audio-taped admission. In
the previous testimonies the jurors had heard a slew of people
including Deepti’s husband discussing their marriage and how their busy
career had led them to have their first child by artificial
insemination. And then there was a Hindu priest telling the jurors how
troubled Deepti was with the on-going affair – and how he had tried,
unsuccessfully, to get her go away from Pasadena. Anderson had denied
sexual relationship with Gupta, mother of three-year-old girl, in his
taped confession. But he admitted in a pretrial hearing he had lied.
Gupta was several week pregnant at the time of her murder. DNA testing,
officials say, proves that Anderson was the father. Prosecutor slammed
him in the court saying he not only killed his lover but also the
unborn son. Prosecutors have also told the jurors that Gupta’s
purchase of self-prescribed prenatal vitamins a few hours before her
murder on Nov. 11, 1999 indicated she intended to keep the baby,
according to Los Angeles Times. She had also implied he was the
father. “Well, don’t blah, blah, blah, then I might do something like
go to your house and tell your wife this,” Anderson was heard saying on
tape, quoting Gupta. He said he suggested to her that they talk the
matter at the park. He also told her he would take his telescope and
they could do some stargazing. It was “something positive to do,” he
told the detectives. But he wasn’t sure anything positive would come
out of the meeting. So, he said, he planned to scare her “a little
bit.” “I was going to tell her that I could burn her car up – because
she really liked her car,” he said on the tape. The prosecution’s
case – that Anderson had premeditated the murder – seemed to suffer
when detective Dan McElderry said the recorder had malfunctioned. It
did not tape Anderson’s confession that he had doused Gupta's body with
gasoline and pushed it off the 450-foot cliff. Anderson told the
authorities that Gupta’s sports vehicle slid off the cliff before he
could torch it and he jumped out, the detective testified. Anderson was
arrested about seven miles from the scene of the crime. McElderry,
answering a question by deputy district attorney Marian Thompson, said
Anderson never apologized or showed any emotions during the taped
interview. Thompson has argued Anderson should be sentenced to die,
telling the court that Anderson murdered Gupta because he didn't want
to have to pay child support for a second child. Anderson, who is
married the third time, saw Gupta “as an inconvenient lover” who posed
danger to his finances, marriage and professional reputation, Thompson
declared. The defense began presenting another picture. It is true his
client has owned up to the killing, attorney Michael Abzug said but it
was a manslaughter carried out in the heat of passion. Abzug said the
killing resulted out of a protective paternal instinct. He called a
longtime friend of Anderson and his roommate at Howard University, who
testified Anderson was "friendly all the time" and "avoided
confrontation." Anderson's second ex-wife, Natalie Profant, also
testified Anderson never threatened her. But under cross-examination a
different picture emerged. Profant said nearly two years ago she
complained to a divorce court that Anderson owed roughly $33,000 in
back child support and alimony. She also admitted she withdrew the
complaint after Anderson threatened to sue her for sole custody of
their daughter. Profant also testified that, during a phone
conversation with her ex a few minutes before he allegedly murdered
Gupta, he did not seemed cool. If the jurors agree with the defense,
Anderson could be charged with voluntary manslaughter and be sentenced
to 10 years in prison.
Evidence Unveiled in Gupta Murder By NIRSHAN PERERA 11/10/2000
A pair of gloves purchased from Home Depot, a half-empty gas can, a
Snoopy necktie, a yard of industrial-strength twine, a map of the San
Gabriel mountains, and a motel receipt from a year ago. Jurors pondered
this odd pile of evidence yesterday while attempting to decipher the
grisly death of Dr. Deepti Gupta. Prosecutors say Gupta, 33, was
murdered a year ago by her fellow physician and erstwhile lover Kevin
Paul Anderson. A star-gazing trip to the Angeles National Forest turned
deadly when Anderson, 41, strangled Gupta, doused her body with
gasoline, and pushed her Mercedes Benz SUV off a 450-foot cliff.
Anderson, who has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, was
arrested at the scene after his getaway car got bogged down in heavy
mud. In a tape-recorded statement, the top pediatrician at St. Luke
Medical Center told police he killed Gupta in a fit of passion after
she threatened his 8-year-old daughter. But prosecutors say he
methodically planned the slaying because Gupta was four weeks pregnant
with a child by him and, though both were married to other people,
planned to keep the baby. “It was going to impact him financially, it
was going to impact his marriage, his reputation and his career,”
Deputy District Attorney Marian Thompson told the jury. “He was going
to have to pay for that child for 18 years.” In addition to the laundry
list of physical evidence recovered from the scene by police, Thompson
entered into evidence a complaint from Anderson’s ex-wife, saying he
owed more than $15,000 in arrears in child support payments. “This does
show his motive to eliminate a possible source of financial
obligation,” Superior Court Judge Teri Thompson ruled while accepting
the complaint as evidence. Much of the murder evidence was recovered
from the Toyota 4-Runner Anderson used to nudge Gupta’s SUV off the
cliff. A witness saw the car fall and followed Anderson for a short
while, before calling a forest ranger. Last week, Anil Sharma, a Hindu
priest who counseled Gupta about her affair, said the victim called him
from a cell phone the night she was strangled and left a message on his
answering machine. “She said I am following him and it is dark, and she
doesn’t know the area and she was audibly sounding scared and
concerned,” Sharma testified. Homicide detective Dan McElderry took the
stand yesterday to tell the jury about the alleged murder weapon. “My
partner and I recovered a (Snoopy) necktie. We found it on the
floorboard under the driver’s seat of Anderson’s car,” he said.
According to the prosecution, Anderson, a graduate of Howard University
Medical School, strangled Gupta with his hands and the necktie. “I
don’t have a huge temper. But I was so angry … I grabbed her and just
started choking her,” Anderson told police after his arrest. On
Wednesday, county medical examiner Yulai Wang testified about Gupta’s
injuries and probable causes. “The abrasions on her neck were caused by
a soft-type ligature such as [the narrow section of] a tie,” he said.
He also recorded a 6 by 3-inch hemorrhage on the left side of Gupta’s
scalp and “skin slippage on her back, shoulders and buttocks ... caused
by the chemical effect of the gasoline,” which never ignited. Gupta’s
husband, Vijay, the chairman of the biomedical engineering department
at the University of California at Los Angeles, did not look at the
color photographs Wang displayed. He held his forehead and stared at
Anderson instead. Anderson, who could face the death penalty, rubbed
his face in agitation and wiped perspiration from his brow with a
tissue.
Spiritual Adviser Recalls Doctor's Obsession By ASWATH RAO 11/8/00
"And so, I don't know, I don't know this place, it's ... it's in the
middle of a lot of mountains. I'm going up the highway. It is very
dark, and I've been driving now like almost 15 minutes," Deepti Gupta
is heard saying on the answering machine of her Hindu spiritual
adviser, Anil Sharma. An hour later, Gupta, 33, mother of a four-year-
old daughter, would be slain. And Kevin Paul Anderson, 41, who like
Gupta is a pediatric specialist, would be charged with her premeditated
murder Today, defense attorney Michael Abzug is trying to convince the
jury that his client did not plan to kill Gupta. As Abzug looks at the
jurors in the Pasadena Superior Court, he wants them to know that
Anderson is far from being the monster the prosecution alleges he is.
He reminds the jury Anderson has admitted killing Gupta. But could the
victim have driven him nuts, ensuring that he killed her in a moment of
anger – and frustration? Sharma admits that in the final days before
the murder, Deepti, who seems to have had a bad marriage with Vijay
Gupta, a university professor, had called him at all hours of the day
and night. Her obsession for Anderson seemed obvious. Abzug tells the
jury Gupta had pushed Anderson to open a practice with her and to save
her from an unhappy marriage, and in the end provoked him by
threatening his pre-teen daughter. "Every conversation that I had with
her had Dr. Anderson's name in it," Sharma says.. "I looked at it, in
my way, as an obsession." Sharma also says he told the police that
Vijay Gupta, co-chairman of a biomedical engineering program at UCLA,
was verbally abusive to his wife during her pregnancy with her daughter
four years ago. "I did advise Deepti Gupta that, 'If there is abuse,
why don't you leave?' " Sharma notes.. "And she said, 'No, I'm not
going to leave.' " Gupta has already testified that there was no
abuse. He has denied suggestions that theirs was an unhappy arranged
marriage. "A lot of marriages are arranged with the parents' help. You
meet your respective spouse but you can say no," Gupta noted. "It's not
like it was 50 to 100 years ago, when you had no choice." He has also
said that he trusted his wife completely – and when Anderson’s wife got
worried that he was having an affair with Deepti, he met with her to
allay her fears. He also remembers telling Anderson’s wife that
marriage were vows were sacred for Deepti. Sharma painfully recalls how
he tried to help Deepti Gupta: "I advised her to get away from Kevin
Anderson and get away from this city," he testified. "I even offered to
introduce her to other medical doctors. But she would not
listen." "She told me 'I'm going to meet Kevin today and tell him I'm
pregnant,' " he continues. He had asked about the baby’s parent. She
did not answer him.. Hours later on Nov. 11, 1999 Gupta is murdered.
She was strangled, doused with gasoline, and placed in a vehicle that
was pushed off a 450-foot cliff in the Angeles National Forest. The
prosecution says Anderson lured her to the lonely spot, strangled her,
and doused the vehicle with gasoline but it reeled off before he could
torch it. He was arrested within an hour of the incident; his own car
had got mired in the mud. The defense says the murder followed an
argument. Anderson has admitted that he strangled Gupta after she
threatened his daughter and he became furious. The defense also says
Gupta was an obsessive woman who wanted Anderson to dump his wife.
Deputy District Attorney Marian Thompson offers another scenario: She
notes Anderson plotted the murder to prevent Gupta from bearing his
son. She says Anderson, who despite his wealth has financial burdens
and has to pay alimony and child support, was scared his third wife
would divorce him. He was afraid she would take their house and other
possessions. A nurse, Tracy Ashmore testifies that Anderson told her
few months before the murder that he was depressed over the
marriage. “I asked him why doesn't he separate and live the life of a
single man," Ashmore testified. "He said he couldn't afford it." The
jury hears more sordid stories. Tests show Anderson had sex with Dr.
Gupta within 24 hours before her death and that DNA evidence shows she
was carrying his son. Anderson has not disputed the unborn baby’s
paternity.. In Her Own Chilling Words: A transcript of phone calls
made by Dr. Deepti Gupta to Anil Sharma in the week before Gupta’s
death: Friday, Nov. 5, 8:52 a.m. Gupta: Good morning, Sharma. It’s 8
o’clock Friday. And I am only calling to apologize. I had called you
Wednesday night, and I probably was troubling you a lot. And—and I’m
trying—trying to make up my mind that I’ve—I am—I am trying to—I’ll try
not to trouble you any more with the phone calls, or even need you so
bad. Now, once the thing is done, when everything falls in place, then
I will—and then will come and meet you and thank you, because I—I feel
as if I’m troubling you too much. So if this (unintelligible) worked
out (unintelligible) a very bad day, I was supposed to start working at
USC and last moment, Thursday morning, my papers got stuck, and I could
not work. So (unintelligible) as you say, that I have to suppress my
feelings for him and just pretend it is professional (unintelligible)
really keep troubling you for the same thing. So I want to apologize,
and certainly from the depth of my heart. But I will definitely—I
promise to call you whenever things fall into place and work out the
way I want it to be. Bye-bye. Friday, Nov. 5, 8:54 a.m. Gupta: Just to
remind you (unintelligible) kind enough to fax me the mantras I could
chant at my fax number. It’s (818) 952-7452. And, once again, whenever
you’re ready to fax it, if you want to beep me, the telephone number
once again, I’ll give it to you at this time, and also the copies, if
you want to send it by mail. And if you are about to send it, if you
want me to give the address once again I'll give it to you. Thank you
very much. Bye-bye. Thursday, Nov. 11, 6:51 p.m. Gupta: Hi, Sharma. The
same time as before. I’m actually in an area which is called the Crest
Highway. It’s near the route to Glendale. I’m going through a very
winding mountain pathway. I’m following him in a car, and he said he’s
(unintelligible). And so I don’t know, I don’t know this place, it’s—
it’s in the middle of a lot of mountains, I’m going up the highway. It
is very dark and I’ve been driving now like almost 15 minutes. Um—
Perfect Murder or Perfect Mess? By ASHWATH RAO 11/1/2000
There are no cameras allowed in this courtroom but the drama that is
unfolding here in Pasadena is just the stuff Hollywood’s soap producers
love. What’s at stake is not just the life of Kevin Paul Anderson, a
wealthy, high profile physician, but also the reputation of the woman
he allegedly murdered. While the DNA tests show that the murder victim
Deepti Gupta, mother of a two year old girl, was four-weeks pregnant
with Anderson’s baby, the question being asked is whether she was a
stalker and a blackmailer. On the first day of the trial, the defense
lawyer certainly made Gupta look like a relentlessly possessive woman
When Gupta was killed about a year ago and Anderson arrested shortly
after her murder, her husband and family members said the murder was
resulted out of a business plan gone awry. Anderson and Gupta, both
pediatricians, had planned to open a private practice in Pasadena last
summer. Her husband told investigators that Anderson’s wife had
suspected that Gupta and Anderson were having an affair but he had
sought to dispel the suspicion, telling Anderson’s wife marriage vows
were taken seriously in India. But investigators found the suspicions
were true. As Anderson’s capital murder trial began on Tuesday, the
prosecutor declared that he had planned and executed an “almost perfect
murder.” Deputy district attorney Marian M.J. Thompson promised the
jury that she would show it was a premeditated murder. Anderson even
had a murder kit that contained gloves and gasoline, a tie and a rope.
Thompson said she would prove to the jury that Anderson strangled Gupta
on November 11 in a remote San Gabriel Mountains Road, then doused the
33-year-old doctor with gasoline and pushed her Mercedes to the edge of
a cliff. But the vehicle moved faster than he expected, and the lighted
matchstick remained in Anderson’s hand. A passing motorist who saw the
car flying down the cliff and spotted Anderson at the site called the
authorities. Anderson was arrested a few minutes later as his car got
struck in the mountain road mud. Thompson said Gupta had told Anderson
that she was pregnant with his child on November 10. She was dead the
next evening. Anderson had lured her into meeting him in the secluded
hilly terrain. “If his wife ever found out, she would kick him out on
the street and ruin him personally and professionally,” Thompson said.
Saying that the DNA tests indicated Anderson fathered the child,
Thompson declared: “Not only did he take the life of a female
colleague… he also took the life of his unborn son.” Gupta, who had
confided in a Hindu priest and sought his wisdom, was determined to
have the baby. As she drove to the destination suggested by Anderson,
she called the priest and discussed the situation. She had felt she had
done the wrong thing but she had no intention of adding more moral
burdens by aborting the child. Her determination unnerved Anderson,
the jurors heard, especially because he was afraid of his wife’s
reaction if she came to know of the liaison. He was also scared he will
face another financial burden—he has been paying alimony and child
support to his former wife. Anderson thought he had created a perfect
alibi: He had turned up in the hospital on the eve of the murder,
chatted with the nurses, and told them he was making rounds. But the
ensuing events yielded the kind of drama one finds in Hitchcock movies.
Anderson killed Gupta, officials say, by using his hands—and then his
neck tie. But the vehicle moved on before he could light a match and
plunged off the cliff. Anderson’s attorney painted another picture. He
sought sympathy for his client; he sought to paint a picture of Gupta
as a reckless woman who threatened to harm a young girl. And he
insisted that Anderson, who has owned up to the murder, had not planned
it. On the other hand, it was a crime of passion—not the kind of crime
that calls for the death penalty. Michael Abzug said it was Gupta who
chased Anderson, betrayed her husband, told lies to Anderson’s wife,
and threatened Anderson’s 7-year-old daughter. If it was not a
premeditated murder, why did officials find gloves, rope, a neck tie
and gasoline in Anderson’s car? He was a passionate hiker, Abzug
argued. He also worried he would run out of fuel, and kept extra supply
in the car, Abzug added. Abzug told the jurors that when Gupta
understood Anderson would not leave his wife, she swung violently at
him and made threats against his daughter. It was those threats that
shook Anderson. “He didn’t think, he strangled her,” Abzug said. He
sighed for a moment, and then: “It wasn’t a perfect murder. “It was a
perfect mess.”
Death Penalty Sought in Dr. Gupta’s Murder By J.M. SHENOY 6/30/00
Asserting that a prominent Pasadena pediatrician lured a 33-year-old
pregnant Indian doctor to meet him so that he could kill her,
prosecutors announced on Wednesday they would seek death penalty for
the alleged killer, Kevin Paul Anderson. The trial is slated to start
in October. Deepti Gupta was found murdered and doused with gasoline in
the secluded San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest on
Nov. 11. Anderson was arrested close to the murder spot after a passer
by alerted the Forest Service after witnessing him at the site of the
incident. Officials say Anderson, 41, had told them that he strangled
Gupta following a heated argument over a failed business partnership.
Subsequently his lawyer, Michael E. Abzug, would deny he had confessed
to the killing. But investigators began suspecting immediately after
the discovery of love letters he had allegedly written to Gupta, that
Anderson was a cold blooded murderer and the motivation for the murder
was purely personal. According to the court transcripts prosecutors
told the grand jury in January that Anderson, a neonatologist,
suspected Gupta, wife of a UCLA professor and mother of a toddler, was
pregnant with his child. She had threatened to tell his wife about
their affair, the grand jury was told. Soon after Gupta’s murder,
several people in the Indian community said Anderson should be
sentenced to die. They were not aware of the alleged illicit
relationship at that time. Gupta and Anderson both worked at
Huntington Memorial Hospital and had planned to start a joint practice.
Anderson, however, backed out after his wife grew jealous, the grand
jury was told in March. It also heard from Gupta’s husband. He said he
met Anderson’s wife a few months before the murder and had told her
that in “India the marriage is sacred and we have a beautiful
relationship, and she should not feel threatened by my wife working
with him.” Deputy District Attorney Marianne Thompson told the jurors
that on the day of the murder Anderson had told Gupta that he needed to
discuss the idea of reviving the business partnership with her. But he
would not take phone calls from her as he needed a reason to meet at
night, Thompson said. He sought to create an alibi by visiting the
hospital an hour before the murder, telling nurses he would be making
rounds. Gupta and Anderson drove separately to the mountain spot. He
allegedly got into her car, choked her until she was unconscious, then
strangled her with his necktie, and poured gasoline on her body. “As a
physician he knows exactly where to place his hands, what type of
pressure to exert,” Thompson told the jury, “I suggest to you he
utilized her carotid to render her unconscious, he hit her to stun her
and then took the tie to finish her off.” He planned to set the car on
fire, but when it started rolling down the hill, he jumped out of the
vehicle. The jury indicted Anderson on a capital murder charge. A
hearing is scheduled on several motions by Abzug to suppress evidence
he says was not properly gathered. Apart from maintaining that Anderson
never confessed to the murder, Abzug told the Lost Angeles Times that a
portion of Anderson’s statement is missing from the tape recording of
the interview with the investigators soon after the arrest.
--
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Before you buy.
bh...@hotmail.com
all side. Don't bring religion and other bullshit into this story -
don't twist the human angle. In short don't be a low life slimeball.
In article <8uuhk0$g6n$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,
Subir...@mci.com
bh...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Sid don't be a moron here. This is a simple tragic story with victims
on
> all side. Don't bring religion and other bullshit into this story -
> don't twist the human angle. In short don't be a low life slimeball.
I got to agree with you, bholu. Our good famed hindoo hunter seems to
have finally succumbed to plain old
cut'n'paste'n'put-HindooHorror'title-ing.