Two men accused of the 2007 murder of two University graduate students were acquitted late Monday, though one will remain in jail.
Casey Jermaine Gathers and Michael Jermaine Lewis, both of Baton Rouge, were found not guilty for the shooting deaths of Kiran Kumar Allam, 33, and Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, 31, in Allam’s on-campus apartment in December 2007. Komma and Allam were international doctorate students from the same region of India.
Gathers will be released, having been imprisoned since his indictment in 2011. Lewis will remain in jail for the duration of his trial for the 2011 killing of a 14-year-old boy.
A third suspect, Devin Parker, also of Baton Rouge, pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery and accessory charges in 2011 and agreed to testify against the other defendants.
Parker told the court he, Gathers and Lewis forced the students into Allam’s apartment and tied up Komma with a computer wire. When Allam tried to escape, they forced him back inside and shot him to death, Parker said.
Komma, still bound, and Allam were found in the apartment by Allam’s wife, who was pregnant at the time. Both had been shot in the head.
Parker said he was outside the building when Komma was shot.
Attorneys for the defense argued that Parker’s testimony could not be trusted because of his history of crime and drug abuse.
Maureen Hewitt, manager of the International Cultural Center, said she has been following the trial closely and was shocked to hear the outcome.
“The trial, of course, is very difficult to watch,” Hewitt said. “I hoped to see a very strong demonstration of justice.”
Without DNA evidence, Hewitt said, it would have been difficult to come up with a conviction. She said the defense did good work with a difficult case, but she was disappointed with the trial’s media coverage.
“Obviously this case has been on the public consciousness, so maybe more coverage would have been counter-productive,” Hewitt said. “But the articles I read didn’t explain the details very well.”
On the five-year anniversary of Komma and Allam’s deaths last year, a garden at the ICC building was dedicated to their memory. Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden spoke at the dedication, along with Hewitt and friends and family of Komma and Allam.
Hewitt said she did not know the students personally, but through mutual acquaintances knew them to be good-hearted people who hoped to use their education to help others.
“I know they were both very caring people, and very social-minded people,” Hewitt said. “With their studies, they were doing work that was very important to developments that could help a lot of people with cancer.”
Komma and Allam have been honored by the University since their deaths, with then-Chancellor Bill Jenkins leading a candlelight vigil and procession in the weeks after the shooting.
The two were also awarded with posthumous doctorate degrees in 2008. Hewitt said both Allam and Komma had nearly finished their doctorate programs before their deaths. Allam was working on his doctorate in chemistry, while Komma sought his in biochemistry.