Jury: Dad Had Son's Wife Killed Because She Was Black

A jury found Chiman Rai guilty Thursday of arranging the murder of his daughter-in-law.

Prosecutors asserted throughout the eight-day trial that Rai was so enraged that his son married Sparkle Michelle Reid and fathered a child with her that he shelled out $10,000 to arrange her killing. They pointed to statements from Ricky Rai, Chiman's son, who told investigators after the killing that his father was "a little racist."

"Ladies and gentleman, Sparkle Michelle Rai was murdered for no other reason than she married Ricky Rai, she had a child with Ricky Rai," prosecutor Sheila Ross told jurors.

Defense attorneys countered that there's no evidence that Chiman Rai had a role in the killing. They said it would be a "senseless, awful tragedy" to convict him of a crime he didn't commit.

"Their whole case rises and falls on whether you believe that Mr. Rai was such a terrible racist, was such a man that was so overwhelmed with anger at his son for having a relationship with Sparkle Reid that he, for no good reason frankly, would hire somebody to murder her," said defense attorney Jack Martin. "Does that really stand up to close scrutiny?"

Sparkle Rai was found dead in her Union City, Ga., apartment in April 2000, her 7-month-old daughter unharmed nearby. But investigators could find little hard evidence pointing to a killer.

Sparkle Michelle Rai IM Sparkle Michelle Rai

The case went unsolved until two witnesses came forward in 2004, a breakthrough that investigators said helped them connect the killing to Chiman Rai.

Prosecutors charged that Rai teamed up with Willie Fred Evans and Herbert Green to serve as middlemen for the hit squad. The two men passed along $10,000 to brothers Cleveland and Carl Clark, they say. Carl Clark allegedly drove the car and Cleveland Clark, a 300-pound ex-con who also faces the death penalty, carried out the killing.

Evans and Green testified they arranged the murder. Defense attorneys say the two are lying to cover up their role in the murder, which they say had the look of a robbery-gone-bad. They also suggested that Evans and Green plotted the killing, perhaps in pursuit of drug money, and they pounded prosecutors for giving the two a "sweetheart deal" in exchange for their cooperation. Evans and Green are expected to get probation.

Defense attorneys portrayed Rai as a hardworking man who brought his family to the U.S. around 1970 and later became a citizen. He taught math at Alcorn State University, a historically black college in Mississippi, and later ran a supermarket in a predominantly black area in Jackson. He also helped purchase a hotel in Louisville, Ky., where he made his 18-year-old son Ricky the general manager in 1998.

Ricky soon hired Sparkle Reid, a 20-year-old Atlanta native, as a clerk. They started dating in October 1998. Two months later she was pregnant with their daughter Analla. A few weeks after their March 2000 wedding, the 22-year-old mother was found dead, strangled with a vacuum cord and stabbed more than a dozen times.

Defense attorneys say Chiman Rai was no doubt frustrated with his son's relationship, but not because he married a black woman.

They also asserted he had an "unblemished" character and called to the stand a handful of Rai's black customers and fellow jail inmates who described him as a close friend and calming presence.

Prosecutors reminded the jury of Chiman's strained relationship with his son. The family didn't attend Ricky's wedding, never met the couple's daughter and proceeded with the wedding of one of Rai's daughters shortly after the murder.

Ross also dismissed the notion that the elderly Green and Evans -- whom she called the "geriatric squad" -- could mastermind the killing, and defended the decision to offer the pair a plea deal.

"In order to get to the devil," she said, "you have to go through a few sinners."

Previous Stories: June 19, 2008: Witness To Murder Testifies In Murder-For-Hire Trial June 17, 2008: Man Accused In Daughter-In-Law's Death; Son Takes Stand June 16, 2008: Man Accused In Death Of Son's Wife