Robert Solis, 50, was convicted by the jury of the Harris County Criminal Court in Houston of the capital murder of 42-year-old Sandeep Dhaliwal
Houston: A man found guilty of capital murder for gunning down Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, the first turbaned Indian-American Sikh police officer in the US state of Texas in 2019, has been convicted by a court here, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Robert Solis, 50, was convicted by the jury of the Harris County Criminal Court in Houston of the capital murder of 42-year-old Dhaliwal, a 10-year-veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Dhaliwal had drawn widespread notice when he gained permission to wear a turban as part of his uniform in 2015. He was killed while on duty on September 27, 2019.
With Dhaliwal’s family in the courtroom on Monday, October 17, the jury took less than 30 minutes to announce the verdict.
Solis, who had dismissed his attorneys and decided to represent himself in court, asked for the death penalty in his opening statement. “Since you believe I’m guilty of capital murder, I believe you should give me the death penalty,” Solis told the jury.
The Jurors deliberated for just 25 minutes before finding Solis guilty of capital murder.
The verdict came after over three years after Solis was arrested and charged with capital murder, accused of shooting Dhaliwal to death during a routine traffic stop.
As Judge Chris Morton read the verdict, Solis nodded his head slightly and showed no emotion.
During his testimony and closing argument of the guilt phase, Solis claimed that the shooting was an accident, calling the state’s case against him insufficient.
“I stand before you an innocent man until you all go back there and deliberate and determine whether or not the state has met its burden and whether I intentionally and knowingly, a conscious objective, shot this deputy,” Solis told the jurors.
Prosecutors said that Solis, who had an active parole violation warrant for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon from 2017, was motivated to kill the deputy because he did not want to go back to jail.
To prove their case they showed the jury a video from slain Deputy Dhaliwal’s body cam, showing Solis jumping out of his car and running up to his patrol car in the middle of the traffic stop, ordering him to put his hands up and not to move.
He then shot the deputy in the head at point-blank range.
It was a piece of heart-breaking evidence that moved everyone, members of the jury and Dhaliwal’s family, in the courtroom into tears.
Father of three children, Deputy Dhaliwal’s killing shocked the entire community in Houston, where he had been known as a “trailblazing deputy” for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, who wore his traditional articles of faith, including a turban and a beard, while on patrol.
A post office in west Houston has been renamed in his honour and Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, who brought the renaming legislation to the US House of Representatives, said at the dedication ceremony, “I am honoured to play a role in commemorating Deputy Dhaliwal’s remarkable life of selfless service,” said Fletcher.
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