Trial, of an Indian American Chiman Rai,68, began in Atlanta on charges of killing his black daughter-in-law by a hired killer by paying him $10000. Rajeev Rai, son of the accused, met Sparkle Reid, after his father appointed her as receptionist at the Hotel owned by Rai family in late 1998, and married her in 2000 after dating her for one and a half years.
The murder remained unresolved for four years till 2004, when Atlanta Police arrested one of two women who witnessed the murder. The woman, arrested on drug charges, confessed having taken the hitman to Reid’s apartment. According to the prosecution, the two women knocked on Reid’s door and the unsuspecting girl, holding her 7 month old baby, opened the door when the hitman, Cleveland Clark, pounced on her, pushed her to the ground and stabbed her 13 times before strangulating her with the chord of her vacuum cleaner.
Chiman Rai, settled in USA in 1970 and was lecturer in Mathematics in Alcorn State University in Mississippi, which is ironically a black institution. He later switched to business, running a supermarket and a hotel in Louisville. His son Rajiv, who has since married an Indian girl and lives in Louisiana, told her relatives that his parents were racist. He is expected to be a witness in the case.