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Sikh Community Turns Out In Numbers To Defend Basuta

R S Shankar in San Diego

On August 5, Manjit Basuta will be sentenced for killing a toddler in her care. She could get 25 years to life. Whether she gets the minimum 25 years or life, her family, which firmly believes in her innocence, says the decision will amount to a death sentence.

"She is 44, and till now she has kept her spirits up because of her faith in God," says Kirit Doshi, one of the many people who did not know Basuta till recently but who have offered to help her appeal. "The more I read about this case, the more convinced I became of her innocence," he says.

Doshi, who runs his own engineering business, says the first trial drove the Basuta family into deep debts so that they lost their home. Her husband, a high-tech consultant, and three children are living with family friends.

"The appeal trial could cost about $ 1 million," says Doshi. "Her family is still strongly with her, but certainly they need help. The community could donate far more than what it has already done," he adds, without divulging the amount of donations received so far, except to say, "it is not significant".

About 200 people, including a mother who had sent her three children to the day care centre run by Basuta, turned up for a rally on Sunday to drum up support for her. Organised by the Sikh Forum and held close to a strip of Indian businesses, it heard pleas by several people to deport Basuta to England, which was her home for more than a decade, till she left for America with her husband and three children. The speakers mentioned Louise Woodward who was found guilty of second-degree murder of baby Mathew Eappen. She was sent back to England after having served nearly a year in prison during her trial.

"If Basuta is sent to England, or even India, she could regain her dignity and start life anew," said a family member. "She has already spent over a month in jail, keep her there for a few more months, but please let her go. She is innocent. And we do not know if another jury will find her innocent. So we hope there is some way of sending her out of this country."

But California lawyers say that under their state law, those who are guilty of killing a child have to serve at least 25 years in prison.

Friends and family members who joined the rally at Mira Mesa Mall reiterated their conviction that Basuta's trial was a miscarriage of justice, and that the court should have allowed evidence that showed that the dead toddler's mother had been accused by her estranged husband of physically abusing the child.

Basuta ran a day-care centre at her home in the affluent Carmel Valley. In March 1998, 13-month-old Christopher Evan Oliver Smith -- known as Oliver -- died in her care. A jury in San Diego convicted her of shaking Oliver to death after it heard testimony from medical experts and eyewitness Christina Carrillo, Basuta's housekeeper.

Carrillo said Basuta shook the child because he would not come to her to have his diaper changed. But Basuta's lawyer Eugene Iredale sought to drill into the jury that the same Carillo had first told the police that Oliver became unconscious after being pushed by another toddler. He died in hospital the next day from injuries to his brain.

Iredale suggested that an old injury, perhaps caused by Audrey Amral, the boy's mother, began to bleed, leading to the toddler's death. But the jury was not convinced.

The jury also dismissed the argument that Carillo changed her version of the accident because she was illegal in America and was scared of being deported.

Earlier, Carrillo had said Basuta told her to lie about the incident and blame a toddler. If she did not, Carrillo said, Basuta threatened to tell authorities that Carrillo, a Guatemalan, was unlawfully living in the United States.

Iredale had said soon after the verdict that he would go in appeal on the basis of several rulings unfavourable to the defence by Judge Kennedy.

"There is supposed to be no reasonable doubt," said her sister, Sukh Jassar, at the rally. Manjit Basuta's siblings from England have been with her husband and children for several weeks. "Here, there was so much reasonable doubt."

Anna Waters, who over the years has had three children in Basuta's care, said she has no doubts of the woman's innocence, the San Diego Tribunal reported. "I'd send my children back to her tomorrow," she says.

Basuta's two oldest sons who spoke at the rally asserted, while fighting back their tears, that their mother really loved children and would not think of harming a child in any way.

"I wish you knew my mom like I know her," said her oldest, Tiko Basuta, 21. Their father -- also named Manjit -- cried as his sons spoke. He said he is bankrupt. "We are in disbelief," he said.

The San Diego Tribunal reported that over the years, seven 'licence deficiencies' had been lodged with state officials against Basuta's day-care operation. One was for having too many children under her care.

"But would that make Manjit a murderer?" reacted her lawyer.

The newspaper stories that the Basutas got green cards by falsely posing as victims of the anti-Sikh riots in India also played on the minds of the jurors. But those charges do not make anyone a murder, Iredale asserted.

"And then these dark men with their 'funny hats' and women in 'funny clothes' came to the court every day of the trial," he said, suggesting how some jurors might have felt.

"I am not saying that the jury was riding a race wagon, but surely at one point they would have thought in terms of race."

Amaral says she hopes some good will come out of her son's tragedy. She has initiated legislation -- known as Oliver's Law -- that will make it easier for parents to get information about day-care centres and what kind of complaints, if any, are pending against a centre.

Many people at the rally were surprised that Basuta garnered what appeared to be little public sympathy throughout her ordeal.

"Louise Woodward had thousands of people praying for her, and thousands sent money to the family," said one family member who asked for anonymity. "Why didn't we get such sympathy? Why is it that just about half of the bail amount came from our community while Americans came forward to help our sister in such big numbers?"

Cultural differences may have something to do with the lack of sympathy, said Sandra Schmid, a neighbour.

Many of Basuta's strongest supporters are her neighbours, most of whom are Americans. They are a continuing source of encouragement to the family, Doshi said. "She is held in high esteem by most of the parents."

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