Kendall Park man who ran his wife down with their minivan will be sentenced in September.
By: Paul Koepp
After six days of deliberations, a New Brunswick jury has handed down a guilty verdict in the trial of a Kendall Park man accused of running down his wife with the couple’s minivan in 2004.
Samander Dabas, 40, was convicted Monday morning in state Superior Court in New Brunswick of first-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. He will be sentenced in September, when he faces a minimum of 30 years in prison without parole.
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch argued during the monthlong trial that Mr. Dabas struck his 20-year-old wife, Renu Dabas, with the couple’s 1999 Mercury Villager in the parking lot of the South Brunswick Square Mall on the night of Aug, 24, 2004, following a dispute.
Mr. Sewitch said that Mr. Dabas had a blood alcohol level of .209, more than twice the state limit for a driver, first drove into a tree in the parking lot shortly after 9 p.m., causing the vehicle’s air bags to deploy, and then ordered his wife to get back in the car.
When she refused, Mr. Dabas ran her down at 20 to 25 mph, throwing her headfirst into a pillar in front of the Belle Jewelry store, the prosecutor said.
Mr. Dabas was originally charged with reckless driving, driving while intoxicated and aggravated assault, but the charges were upgraded after his wife died of head injuries four days later, Aug. 28, at University Medical Center at Princeton.
Ms. Dabas had arrived in the United States only three or four weeks before the incident, about a year after the couple’s arranged marriage in India. She spoke no English and had no family in the country, Mr. Sewitch said.