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Joseph "Sanish" Pallipurath, 40, argues in an appeal to the state Supreme Court that his attorney should have mounted an insanity defense during his trial in Superior Court in Paterson in 2011.
Reshma James, 24, had been trying to flee an abusive arranged marriage in India that continued after Pallipurath brought her back with him to California, prosecutors said at the time.
James obtained a restraining order against Pallipurath and went to live with her female cousin in Hawthorne, they said.
Three months later, Pallipurath drove to New Jersey from California. The trip took five days, authorities said. He then rented a room, stalked James, and confronted her near the end of a service at St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton on Nov. 23, 2008.
Pallipurath suddenly began shooting, killing James and a fellow-churchgoer, Dennis John Malloosseril, a Schering-Plough Corp engineer who came to her aid. James's cousin, Silvy Perincheril, was wounded and survived her injuries.
Pallipurath was arrested in Georgia, about 45 miles east of Atlanta, soon after. He admitted what he'd done, said prosecutors, who played his videotaped confession during the trial.
“Man, I swear if I had I had a [expletive] machine gun I would’ve killed everybody,” he reportedly told police. “I would’ve massacred the whole [expletive] church, man.”
Pallipurath later testified during his trial that he'd blacked out and didn't intend to shoot anyone.
Jurors convicted him of two counts of murder and one of attempted murder.
Given what he says is a prolonged history of mental illness in India, Pallipurath's current attorney says the trial lawyer should've pursued an insanity defense. Unable to convince a state appeals court, he's taken the case to New Jersey's Supremes.
“The physical facts are not in dispute," attorney John Vincent Saykanic wrote. "The only issue that needed to be litigated in this case was Mr. Pallipurath’s state of mind...[n]ot only at the time of the incident, but two days later when he gave his confession in Georgia and also at the time that he stood trial.”
Pallipurath, who's serving his sentence at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, does have a parole eligibility date -- May 22, 2153.
That's 131 years from now.
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