A California man was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday without the possibility of parole after confessing that he killed his wife and three children, thinking, he said, that
he could not support them financially
.
Shankar Hangud, 55, admitted to murdering his family over several days in October 2019, according to investigators in Placer County, northeast of Sacramento, cited by KCRA-TV.
Their children were 13, 16 and 20 years old.
Shankar Hangud during an appearance before the Placer County Supreme Court on October 16, 2019, just days after murdering his family.Renee C. Byer / AP
The man was arrested when he showed up at a police station in Mount Shasta, more than 200 miles from his home, with
the body of his eldest son in his car
and told police the details of the four murders, prosecutors said during the judgment.
[These children went to jail for a crime that does not exist]
The bodies of the other victims were found in the family home in Roseville, northeast of Sacramento, police said.
It's an old-world patriarchal thinking pattern where if you can't be a provider, you don't want your family to have anything. "
David Tellman prosecutor
Placer County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Penney, who called the incident a "horrible crime," sentenced Hangud to
three life sentences
.
The district attorney's office said that having killed more than one person, he will not be eligible for parole.
Hangud said he fell into despair when he
lost his computer job
and saw his marriage fall apart, the prosecution said.
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The man pleaded guilty in September to three counts of first-degree murder of his children and one count of deliberately helping his wife die by suicide.
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"It's hard to accept that this tragedy could have happened because someone didn't get a job," reflected Placer County Attorney David Tellman.
"But it's an old-world patriarchal thinking pattern where if you can't be a provider, you don't want your family to have anything. So you kill your family," he said.
Hangud was a data expert.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he had worked for several companies in Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area.