Lawyers want delay in trial of man charged in deaths of migrant family near Manitoba-U.S. border

The trial for aman accused of human smuggling after a migrant family was found frozen to death near the Manitoba-U.S. border may not start as planned on Monday, according to court documents.

Last May, Steve Anthony Shand, from Florida, pleaded not guilty to one count each of bringing people into the U.S. illegally and of transporting them inside the country in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

His trial was scheduled to begin Monday, but in a joint motion filed Thursday in theMinnesota court, both Shand's lawyer, Aaron J. Morrison,and prosecutors requested an extension.

The motion asks that Shand'slegal case be granted an exemption from the Speedy Trial Act, which outlines time limits to complete the various steps of a federal criminal prosecution.

Shand was arrested on Jan. 19, 2022 in a remote area of northern Minnesota, where border agents found him with two Indian nationals in a rented passenger van.

On the same day, near the southern Manitoba border town of Emerson, RCMP discovered the frozen bodies of Jagdish Patel, 39, and his wife, Vaishali, 37, along with their two childrendaughter Vihangi, 11, andson Dharmik, 3.

'Complex' case: court documents

Authorities believe the Patelfamily, who werefrom Dingucha village in India, died from exposure while trying to slip into the U.S. undetected.

Prosecutors and Shand's lawyer are asking that the time between Sept. 18 and the as-yet-undetermined start of his trial be excused under the Speedy Trial Act, the motion says.

They say a90-day extension from Sept. 18would be sufficient.

The motion says because the case is "complex," adelay to the trial's start is justified under the act. The court document says more time would also "serve the ends of justice, which outweighs the interests of the public."

More time would also allow possible additional charges against Shand to be prepared, and "may enable all potential charges to be resolved without one or more separate indictments and therefore avoid the need for multiple trials,"the court document says.

The Associated Press reported last May that Shand's trial was initially set to begin on July 17, but that date was subject to change. His arraignment was also postponed 10 times due to backlogs after pandemic health measures kept court personnel and the public from gathering in courtrooms, The Associated Press reported.

Shand was granted a conditional release from a North Dakota jail days after he was arrested in January 2022.

In addition to the two found with Shand, five other undocumented Indian nationals were also arrested around the same time and place as him, according to U.S. Homeland Security documents.

It's believed that those seven people, and the Patel family, were all part of the same group, but that the Patels had become separated from the rest.

In May, The Canadian Press reported that police in India hadarrested three other people in connection with the deaths of the Patels, andIndian authorities hadstarted the process to extradite two Canadians to face charges.