The 2007 killings of two University graduate students from India continue to make headlines, as a state judge set the trial date for Aug. 13 for the two Baton Rouge men accused of the crime, according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press also reported that the judge refused to lower the $25,000 bonds set by another judge.
Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, a biology student from Kurnool, India, and Kiran Kumar Allam, a chemistry student from Hyderabad, India, were found dead with gunshots to the head in Allam’s Edward Gay apartment Dec. 13, 2007. The killings appeared to be related to a home invasion robbery.
Casey Jermaine Gathers, 23-year-old Baton Rouge resident, and Michael Jermaine Lewis, 22-year-old Baton Rouge resident, were charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
Gathers and Lewis were not indicted until July 21.
Devin Parker, a 23-year-old Baton Rouge resident and the third man booked in connection with the killings, pleaded guilty on June 27, 2011, to armed robbery and accessory after the fact.
Parker has not been sentenced, but he agreed to testify in any legal proceedings in the future concerning the case.
While the three men were booked with the killings, Parker was the only one indicted in 2009.
“I feel, personally, we had enough evidence to indict all three, but obviously the grand jury didn’t feel the same way,” Lawrence Rabalais, LSU Police Department Chief, told The Daily Reveille on Oct. 21, 2009. “It is frustrating. It was a gambit of well-experienced, seasoned veterans that were involved in this investigation, and I think if you ask any of them who were involved, they would tell you when we arrested those three people, we had the right people.”
 
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Contact Kate Mabry at [email protected]