GUILTY Canada - Gurpreet Kaur, 29, murdered in her Montreal home, 24 Dec 2007

Twenty-one days after she gave birth to her second child, the 29-year-old woman was beaten, strangled and stabbed at her apartment...

Mr. Cheema withdrew $500 from an ATM moments after dropping off the children. Later that day, he showed up on the doorstep of a Toronto girlfriend, who police say knew nothing of his Montreal life. When Mr. Cheema claimed he needed to get to Vancouver for a wedding, the girlfriend purchased a one-way plane ticket for him on Christmas Day, police say.

"He was a pretty good con man," Det. Sgt. Hogg said. "She was an immigration security guard and he met her while he was being detained [upon his arrival in Canada]. She thought they were going to get married."

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One of Quebec’s 10 most wanted people was arrested in San Francisco, seven-and-a-half years after a warrant was issued by Canada.

Harinder Singh Cheema from Montreal was wanted in the death of his 29-year-old wife Gurpreet Kaur on Christmas Eve in 2007. He is accused of second-degree murder.

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Once one of Quebec’s most wanted, a man who admitted to killing his wife on Christmas Day 2007, is facing trial.

Harinder Singh Cheema doesn’t deny having killed his wife, and during opening statements Thursday, both the prosecution and defence stated as much.

However Cheema has pleaded not guilty to murder and his defence attorney has not yet revealed what the legal strategy will be in this case.

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“She tried to stab me and said ‘you f–king piece of s–t.’ She came forward with the knife and I lost it. ‎I took the knife and I stabbed her,” he said, adding it was the insults toward his mother and sister that launched him into a rage.

“Basically, she provoked me to do something,” he said. “I don’t know how many times I stabbed her.”

While insisting several times that his immigration status had nothing to do with the homicide, Cheema appeared to contradict himself later on by saying: “I consider myself a victim. She abused a power (her role in his application to be a permanent resident in Canada).”

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Harinder Singh Cheema, a man who was on Quebec’s most-wanted list for years when he disappeared after he stabbed his wife, has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

A second-degree murder verdict carries an automatic life sentence, but it will be up to Superior Court Justice Pierre Labrie to set Cheema’s parole eligibility at anywhere from 10 to 25 years. Labrie asked the jury for their recommendations on parole eligibility and their replies ranged between 10 and 15 years. Labrie will hear arguments on Cheema’s eligibility on Thursday.

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On Dec. 21, Labrie will decide how much more time Cheema will have to spend behind bars before he is eligible for a release. The minimum is 10 years and the maximum is 25.

“I did a terrible, terrible crime. I took someone’s life,” Cheema said on Thursday while requesting the minimum. “I am so embarrassed of what I did. I was dumb at the time and I was stupid. If it happened today, it’s a totally different scenario. I wish she had killed me. I killed her just one time, but I kill myself every day.”

Prosecutor Maude Payette seized on Cheema’s use of the word “embarrassed” when she began arguing that his parole eligibility should be set at 16 years. The word sounded self-serving during a sentence hearing, where a person is supposed to be expressing regret over the pain they have caused to other people.

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A man who killed his wife and hid from police for seven years will be behind bars until at least 2030.

Harinder Singh Cheema was sentenced Thursday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 15 years.

The judge called Cheema "a self-centred, deceitful, and manipulative person" for killing his wife, Gurpreet Kaur, on Dec. 24, 2007, and depriving their children of their mother.

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