FERGUS FALLS, Minn. – As an Indian migrant family struggled to cross the border during a brutally cold blizzard, they made desperate phone calls to the alleged smuggler who had arranged their passage from Canada.

The migrants told the alleged smuggler, Fenil Patel, that they couldn’t find the driver who was supposed to pick them up on the U.S. side of the border and that they were too cold in the early morning hours of January 19, 2022. As the weather dropped to minus 33 degrees with wind chill, they told Patel their children, ages 11 and 3, could not stand the weather and they did not have enough clothes to keep warm.

Patel told the migrants to come back to the Canadian side and that he would pick them up or send someone for them, concerned that they would get arrested on American soil where they didn’t have a visa. But no one came, and the migrants were found frozen to death hours later.

That was the testimony of cooperating witness and convicted West Coast smuggler Rajinder Pal Singh in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, as prosecutors laid out their case against two other men they say were involved in the enterprise, Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand. One major question: just who is legally responsible, and to what extent, for the deaths of Jagdish Patel, 39; his wife Vaishaliben, 37; and their children, Vihangi, 11; and Dharmik, 3?

Patel is a common name in the western Indian state of Gujarat and the victims and alleged smugglers – all from that region — are not related.

Gujarati police charged Fenil Patel in connection with the deaths of the Patel family in January 2023. An investigation by Canadian media outlet CBC News in January 2024 found that Fenil Patel has been openly living in a suburb of Toronto. He faces no charges in the U.S.

In Minnesota, prosecutors called Singh to testify about the larger smuggling operation that spurred the fatal journey of Jagdish Patel’s family. Singh, from the Indian state of Punjab, illegally entered the U.S. at least three times, serving prison twice for fraud and returning without legal permission after being repeatedly deported.

He pleaded guilty in Seattle in February 2023 to transporting and harboring certain aliens for profit and conspiracy to commit money laundering, admitting that he received more than $500,000 as a key member of a smuggling ring that brought hundreds of Indians across the Canadian border to Washington state. Singh, who said he smuggled more than 500 people into America over the years, was not charged in connection with the Patel family’s deaths and testified that he only handled border crossings from British Columbia.

Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt was “disappointed” and visibly frustrated Tuesday after the County Board delayed a vote on her plan to reduce the number of prisoners in the jail to comply with a state order.

Witt asked county commissioners Tuesday to approve up to $8 million for agreements with 21 counties to temporarily house inmates from the state’s “busiest jail.” The “joint powers agreements” would allow Witt to send inmates to other counties in the case of emergencies, safety concerns and overcrowding.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections ordered Witt to reduce the jail population from about 850 to 600 by Dec. 5, citing violations of staffing levels and regular well-being checks of prisoners. There were 662 inmates in the jail Tuesday evening and 182 in other facilities.

Commissioners were surprised by Witt’s request for $8 million that the sheriff concedes is not in her budget. They also questioned why it hadn’t been sent to them sooner so it could be thoroughly reviewed.

“We just got this today,” said Board Chair Irene Fernando. “We just haven’t had the opportunity to review it with the diligence that $8 million merits.”

Instead, commissioners called a special meeting for Dec. 3 and voted 5-2 to ask staff to come up with other options, including expanding the temporary capacity at the adult corrections facility in Plymouth. They also gave County Administrator David Hough the OK to negotiate deals with three to five nearby counties at a lower cost.

Several commissioners also took issue with Witt’s proposal to possibly send inmates to far away counties to meet the new state capacity rules. Witt has inmate housing deals with five counties and hopes to add 16 more.

Kyle Steven Williams was convicted Tuesday in the 2021 murder of Kelly Jo Marie Kocurek, a 36-year-old mother of two, who was found bloodied and bruised in a Hastings hotel.

Following a five-day trial, a Dakota County jury convicted Williams, 35, of Red Wing, of first-degree murder while committing domestic abuse, premeditated first-degree murder, intentional second-degree murder and first-degree assault.

A conviction of premeditated first-degree murder comes with a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole. The jury deliberated for less than a day before reaching a verdict, according to a news release from the Dakota County Attorney’s Office.

“Today justice was rightly served as Mr. Williams will now be held accountable for his continued acts of domestic abuse that culminated in the violent murder of Kelly,” Dakota County Attorney Kathryn Keena said in a statement. “While no outcome can ever fully heal the wounds of this heartbreaking incident, I hope today’s verdict brings some peace and comfort to Kelly’s family and loved ones.”

On May 18, 2021, Kocurek was found unresponsive by Hastings police officers in a room of a local hotel. She had marks around her neck and a number of cords were lying next to her. Her face was bruised. She was hospitalized but died from her injuries five days later.

Williams told police that Kocurek tried to strangle herself and he tried to cut the cords from around her neck, according to the attorney’s office. But the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Kocurek was strangled in a homicide and had also suffered traumatic injuries to her head.