GUILTY MI - Brij, 65, & Aasha Chhabra, 56, dead in contract killing, Troy, 11 March 2008

Texana said:

Sad story in another murder-for-hire over money. The man who arranged the execution style killings lived a lot closer to me than I'd like to admit.

It's always the quiet ones you have to watch out for.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5627830.html

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Filly said:

Whoa. Texana, that's scary. They met at an AA Meeting none the less. Absolutely it's the quiet ones. Nobody going to be having loud parties, shooting off their mouths, causing trouble when they are up to something.

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Texana said:

I've got a neighbor like this, and I check his koi pond frequently to see if his recently-divorced wife might be there.

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Filly said:

LOL, Heaven forbid she's in with the koi. Only koi pond I've ever seen is at the pet store, Texana. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Texana said:

The wife disappeared a few months ago last year. We noticed we hadn't seen her...and we actually peered over the fence to see if the koi pond had some freshly disturbed dirt.

But no, it hadn't, and she showed up with the kids in tow for a visit.

At least when the local news interviews me, I'm going to be the neighbor that says, "He was always quiet but I KNEW something was wrong."

Oh, and about the murder-for-hire--it is so sad to think that these women were only trying to get their rightful money when he killed one of them.

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In an upstairs bedroom, a wedding dress displayed on a bed was a replica of a gown worn by a queen featured in a portrait hanging on Thadani's wall, one neighbor said.

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Nelson Mendoza, a 35-year-old Salvadoran national from Texas, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the March 11 killings of Brij Mohan Chhabra, 65, and his wife, 56-year-old Aasha, in their home in Troy.

A jury convicted Mendoza of first-degree murder last month. He was the admitted getaway driver, while co-defendant Miguel Angel Servando rang the doorbell pretended to be a deliveryman, entered the house and shot the couple.

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Narayan Thadani, 63, was sent to prison for life by Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. Douglas Tobar, 42, who also appeared before the same judge, received a sentence of 30 years behind bars...

Authorities said Thadani hired the hitmen after bilking Aasha Chhabra's $2 million inheritance that she had trusted him to manage. The Chhabras filed a lawsuit against him over the missing money.

Servando pleaded guilty to first-degree premeditated murder and is serving a lifetime prison sentence...

Court records show Thadani pleaded guilty in June to two counts of murder for hire and one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence. Tobar pleaded guilty in July to two counts of murder for hire.

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