Yandamuri Raghunandan - The First Indian To Be Punished With Death Penalty On The American Soil

Facts about Yandamuri Raghunandan.

1. Yandamuri Raghunandan is a Telugu, an ethnic group residing mostly in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The distinguishing characteristics of Telugus include an insatiable appetite for Dum Biryani, Avakaya pickle, Priya pickle, Gutti Vankaya and Gongura Chicken, a desperate itch to migrate to the U.S. and an inexplicable fondness for Allu Arjun films.

2. Yandamuri Raghunandan is 26-years-old. Yandamuri was born in the coastal Andhra city of Vizag on February 21, 1986 (Friday). For Telugus, 1986 marks a landmark as that was the year the on-screen torture of ‘non-actor’ Akkineni Nagarjuna in a lead role started.

3. Yandamuri Raghunandan lived in the Marquis Apartments complex in King of Prussia, PA. Yandamuri’s Address: xxx W.Dekalb PK,  King of Prussia, PA 19406 is not a tourist spot for Telugus like the Balaji Temple in Pittsburgh or the Venkateswara Temple in Bridgewater, NJ.

4. Yandamuri Raghunandan is married and his wife Komali Alokam is pregnant. For Telugus, ‘Birthed in America‘ is higher than ‘Made in India‘ and like a lot of Telugus Yandamuri was planning to get his mother-in-law and father-in-law to the U.S. to assist them, post-delivery.

5. Yandamuri Raghunandan is a software programmer, a bug affecting many Telugus. Yandamuri previously worked for Sarayu Consultants of Carpentersville, IL.

6. Yandamuri Raghunandan weighs 160lbs and is 5-ft 9-inches, taller than the average Telugu.

7. Yandamuri Raghunandan previously lived in California and moved to King of Prussia, PA, indicating a nomadic lifestyle afflicting a lot of Telugu software professionals.

8. Raghunandan Yandamuri drove a 1999 Red Honda Acura Integra car with plate JBKxxxx. The car is not a collector’s item, so please do not start looking for it on eBay, Craigslist or any of the Telugu forums.

9. Yandamuri Raghunandan possessed an Illinois Driver’s License that he will not be needing in future. Telugu numerologists may note that Raghunandan’s Driver’s License No Yxxx72086xxx, translates inauspiciously to Y44 when you add up the numbers in the license.

10. Yandamuri Raghunandan has excellent comedy skills, suggesting he must have watched at least a few dozen films starring Telugu comedian Brahmanandam. Proof of Raghunandan Yandamuri’s comic strengths – He participated in the search for the missing child Saanvi Venna, posted and distributed “Missing Child” fliers and attended a vigil without arousing the suspicion of other Telugus.

11. Yandamuri Raghunandan was desperate for money, an incurable, occasionally fatal, disease affecting not just Telugus but the entire Homo Sapiens race. Yandamuri’s financial troubles led him to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on April 10, 2012 in California.

12. Yandamuri Raghunandan's Social Security Number is 348-xx-40xx totaling up to 31, which totals to 4, a number that Telugu numerologists will unhesitatingly disapprove of since 4 also appears twice in his Driver’s License Numero-total. Please refer to point 9, above.

13. Raghunandan has been charged with more crimes than any other Telugu, living or dead.

14. Yandamuri Raghunandan is charged with the following crimes:

* PACC 2052(a) Murder of the First Degree

* PACC 2052(b) Murder of the Second Degree

* PACC 2901(a)1 Kidnapping F1

* PACC 2901(a)2 Kidnapping F1

* PACC 2901(a)3 Kidnapping F1

* PACC 3502 (a) Burglary F1

* PACC 3701(a)(1((i)Robbery F1

* PACC 3701(a)(1((ii)Robbery F1

* PACC 3701(a)(1((iii) Commits or Threatens immediately to commit any felony of the first or second degree – F1

* PACC 3921 (a) Movable Property – A person is guilty of theft if he unlawfully takes or exercises unlawful control over, movable property of another with intent to deprive him thereof. F3

* PACC 5510 – Abuse of Corpse M2

Still awake?

15. Yandamuri Raghunandam , like most people, misused office equipment for personal ends. But Yandamuri took misuse of office equipment to new, stratospheric heights by printing the ransom notes on his work computer, a crime million times worse than the Telugus’ favorite pastime of ogling at pictures of starlets Ileana, Anushka, Kajal, Samantha or Tamanna on their office computers.

16. Yandamuri Raghunandan has a bizarre sense of humor, suggesting a weakness for bad Telugu movies that are rife with crude humor. After confessing to his crimes,  Yandamuri asked the police officers to tell the media that his wife had turned him in so that she could get the Reward money of $30,000 established for locating the missing child Saanvi Venna! Is this the new definition of chutzpah?

17. Yandamuri Raghunandan did not leave just one copy of the Ransom note in the Vennas’ apartment but flung 10 copies, a weird move that will have Telugus running to their mythology books for the significance of the number 10. Hey, didn’t Ravana, the Sri Lankan demon king and abductor of Sita, have 10 heads? Eureka!

18. Yandamuri Raghunandan killed 61-year-old Satyavathi Venna and her 10-month-old granddaughter Saanvi Venna and introduced Americans to a new Indian word Telugu.

Yandamuri – Desperate for Money

Without doubt, Yandamuri Raghunandan committed the two murders (of 61-year-old Sathyvathi Venna and her 10-month-old grandaughter Saanvi Venna) for money.Just three days before his murder spree, media reports say Yandamuri called his Telugu buddy Chendu Tummala in San Jose, California and asked him for $1,000. But the thousand dollars Yandamuri borrowed from Tummala was just an appetizer compared to the $50,000 Ransom entree he was quietly cooking up.

Yandamuri wanted big money desperately, something like $50,000 (the amount he asked for in the ransom note). And to get that $50,000, Yandamuri was willing to go to any extent including murdering grandma Satyavathi Venna and then kidnapping and murdering little Saanvi Venna on October 22, 2012.

However, Yandamuri’s financial woes were not new. Even before he moved to King of Prussia around May 2012, Yandamuri had severe financial problems while living in San Jose, California.

Telugu bidda Yandamuri Raghunandan was an unlucky gambler.

Yandamuri lost $50,000 in 12-months on gambling. And Yandamuri’s $50,000 ransom gamble led to the loss of two lives, besides the loss of his own freedom and endless misery to many others. By the age of 26, Yandamuri Raghunandan weathered more financial trouble than most of us experience in a lifetime.

An analysis of Raghunandan Yandamuri’s publicly available financial documents suggest his woes were largely self-inflicted. Ultimately, Yandamuri’s financial travails became catastrophic not only for himself and his wife but for two innocent souls from the Venna family as well.

Candlelight Vigil for Baby Saanvi Venna

Yandamuri's Ransom Note

Telugu Bidda – Errors Galore

Were it not for a bunch of horrendous errors, Telugu bidda Yandamuri would not be in the dock at the Montgomery County courthouse today fighting a losing battle for his life.

Instead, he’d be like any other Telugu bidda in North America – the happy father of a couple of little biddas, gobbling Dum Biryani thrice a week, rejoicing in the antics of Allu Arjun, Ram Charan and other assorted simian actors and planning the launch of his own Dum Biryani franchise business.

Let’s examine the egregious mistakes Yandamuri made on the fateful Monday in October 2012, errors that have led him to his current plight:

1) Obviously, the paramount mistake Raghunandan Yandamuri made was deciding to commit the horrific crime of taking two lives. Nothing, nothing on this planet can justify the snuffing out of innocent lives. Every individual (young or old, rich or poor, Indian, American, Chinese or of any nationality) is entitled to the basic human rights of life and liberty.

2) Not putting sufficient planning into the crime was the second humongous blunder. Yandamuri seems to have put less thought into the horrific crimes than the time it takes to eat a plate of Dum Biryani. The chronicle of Yandamuri’s actions in committing the kidnapping, robbery and twin murders smacks of poor planning and hasty execution. Even villains in Allu Arjun comedies who yodel Champaestanu every 3.15-seconds do a superior job when they plot to steal, kidnap, plunder, kill or outrage the modesty of a rural belle.

3) How did Yandamuri think he’d be able to get away with the baby’s kidnapping when the grandmother had seen him a few days earlier at her son’s house. Even with his hoodie, the grandmother would have quickly recognized that the kidnapper was a Telugu by his accent. Once Yandamuri entered the apartment, not killing grandma was not an option at all. Yandamuri should have realized kidnapping the baby without murdering the grandma was an impossibility if he wanted to avoid capture. The moment Satyavathi Venna opened the apartment door,  her fate, the fate of her granddaughter and ultimately the fate of Raghunandan Yandamuri were all sealed. The chronicle of many deaths foretold!

4) Yandamuri erred in grossly underestimating the police. Whatever you may say about the Pennsylvania police (the idiots shoot each other occasionally), they’re extremely efficient when it comes to nabbing amateurs like Raghunandan Yandamuri.

5) Opening his mouth and blabbing away to the police is another Himalayan blunder on Yandamuri’s part. The blockhead not only put out a confession on video but even enacted it in what must rank as the second-most bizarre action by a Telugu ever (the most bizarre Telugu decision ever is obviously Allu Arjun and Ram Charan diving into the movie business as ‘actors’).

6) Once Yandamuri killed the grandma, he should have pocketed the jewels, left the baby in the apartment and fled. That way, it’d seem like a robbery gone awry and would have made it hard for the police to easily zero in on him.

7) Trying to make money by kidnapping a child in America suggests an overdose of Tollywood films where the rich man’s baby is stolen by the dismissed driver or angry servant out to take revenge on the Zamindar (Of course, two decades later the baby grows up into poor lad Ram Charan who falls in love with the haughty adopted daughter of the Zamindar and saves her by bare-handedly killing the villain Kota Srinivasa Rao’s cruel son in the film). I have not heard of a successful baby kidnapping in America in recent years. Thanks to Amber Alerts and the like, it’s very hard to get away with the kidnapping of a baby in the U.S. If kidnapping of babies worked in the U.S., you can be sure Estonian and Ukrainian criminal gangs, Rowdy Ramudu, Rowdy Bhimudu and Rowdy Rangiah would be shifting their base en masse to America.

8) Hey Yandamuri, how dumb can you be! Using names like ‘Lata’ and ‘Shiva” on the ransom note is beyond stupid and easily led the police to conclude that the criminal was someone known to the Venna family.

9) Given his history of gambling, bankruptcy and financial problems, Yandamuri should have realized the needle of suspicion would quickly point to him.

10) Not watching Law & Order episodes.

11) After committing the crimes, Yandamuri should have coordinated his story with his wife. Discrepancies between the accounts of Yandamuri and his wife to the police was a key factor in nailing him.

12) Going to the Valley Forge casino after the crimes was another monumental mistake that led the police to quickly connect the dots and link Yandamuri’s difficult financial situation and gambling habits to the horrific crime at the King of Prussia apartment complex.

The Marquis Apartments, King of Prussia PA

Valley Forge Casino, PA

Yandamuri – What Next?

Unless Raghunandan Yandamuri takes his own life (of which there’s a strong possibility), he will linger for several years. If he chooses to, there’s a long appeals process available to him. Prisoners condemned to death often stay 10 to 20 years on death row before they’re executed because of the lengthy process involved in an execution.

Further, there are already 184 inmates on Pennsylvania’s death row who must first be executed before Yandamuri can get his turn. Pennsylvania prison authorities also face serious constraints in obtaining the drugs required for lethal injection.This problem will only intensify in the years to come. The state has not executed anyone since murderer, kidnapper and rapist Gary Heidnik was put to death by lethal injection on July 6, 1999. So it’ll be a long time, if ever, before Raghunandan Yandamuri feels the sting of the lethal injection in his arm.

Pennsylvania Death Chamber

Never let it be said that Telugus are not pioneers.

Be it in (re)discovering America, releasing Oscar-worthy Tollywood gems, littering Dum Biryani restaurants across the landscape of Amreeka, committing murderous crimes in state after state, writing code in all 50 American states or butchering Queen’s English. U.S. based Telugus have cemented their reputation as one of nature’s extraordinary creatures.

Not since the dinosaurs went extinct 65-million years back, has there been a remarkable species like the Telugus. No exaggeration to say that Lord Balaji broke his mold into a million fragments after creating Telugus.

Today, U.S. Telugus took their bizarre reputation several notches higher when Telugu bidda Yandamuri Raghunandan became the first Indian to be awarded the death penalty in America. Yandamuri is neither the first nor the last Telugu butcher in America. More Telugus are awaiting trial for murder in other U.S. states! Yandamuri was awarded the death penalty for murdering baby Saanvi Venna and her grandmother Satyavathi Venna during a botched kidnapping attempt of the infant in King of Prussia (PA) in October 2012.

Yandamuri – Tick-Tock

The clock has started ticking for Telugu bidda Yandamuri Raghunandan, the first Indian to be punished with death penalty in the U.S. The bloodthirsty prosecutors of Montgomery County (PA) and the shabby verdict of the jury won over prudence and justice today.The arguments made by Yandamuri’s mitigation attorney Henry Hilles to award Yandamuri life in prison without parole instead of the death penalty cut no ice with the merciless jury during the penalty phase of the most infamous trial of an Indian in America.

As mitigating factors, Hilles informed the jury that Yandamuri had bipolar disorder with a history of psychiatric and non-psychiatric episodes of mania and depression, suffered post-traumatic stress after his father’s death in a terror attack and had an addiction to gambling.

But the cold-hearted jurors were unmoved and unanimously handed down the death sentence to the Telugu bidda for the murder of baby Saanvi Venna and her grandmother Satyavathi Venna, kidnapping of the baby, robbery and related offenses at their King of Prussia (PA) apartment complex on October 22, 2012 during a botched kidnapping for ransom attempt.

The dozen jurors took less than four hours to award Yandamuri the death penalty.