Northern California man guilty of murder and sentenced for deaths of his wife and children
A Placer County judge on Wednesday sentenced a Roseville man to spend the rest of his life in prison for the deaths of his wife and three children in a gruesome slaying that made national headlines two years ago after he surrendered with his son’s body in the trunk of his car.
Shankar Hangud, 55, was convicted of three counts of first-degree murder for killing his three children and one count of deliberately aiding his wife in committing suicide. The victims have been identified as Jyothi Shankar, 46; Varum Shankar, 20; Gauri Hangud, 16; and Nischal Hangud, 13.
Placer Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Penney sentenced Hangud to three consecutive terms of life in prison to be served without the chance of parole, according to the Placer County District Attorney’s Office.
Friends, classmates and a teacher of one of the victims were in the courtroom Wednesday for Hangud’s sentencing, along with law enforcement officials involved in the case. Supervising Deputy District Attorney Lisa Botwinik said they hope the prison sentence provides some closure to those affected by the deaths of this mother and her children.
“This tragic case had a horrible ending for the victims involved and unfortunately they did not have a voice at the sentencing hearing,” Botwinik told The Sacramento Bee. “This sentence will ensure that the defendant has to spend every day in prison thinking about the pain he caused to his family and community.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney David Tellman spoke in court on behalf of the victims. In a statement last week, Tellman said the deaths of the children “touched this community very deeply, and although there are no family members left to see justice served, many in our community remember the victims from school or from their neighborhood.”
Hangud initially pleaded not guilty to the murders in 2019. Last month, he pleaded guilty to the four deaths. Hangud worked as a data specialist for several companies in the Sacramento area, according to his LinkedIn profile.
After his October 2019 arrest, Roseville police said they believed Hangud killed his family during a weeklong crime spree, murdering his wife and daughters over the course of three days. He then traveled across Northern California and took his son to a remote part of Siskiyou County, where he later killed him.
Hangud then walked into the Mount Shasta Police Department, 230 miles north of Roseville, and told officers he had killed four people. Hangud had parked outside and said there was a dead man in his red Mazda 6 sedan. His son’s body was found in the trunk.
Shortly after, the Roseville Police Department was notified of Hangud’s confession. Police went to the family’s apartment on Junction Road. There, police found the bodies of his wife and two daughters.
This story was originally published November 10, 2021 at 1:24 PM.
