Episode 155: Aita Gurung
Aita Gurung was raised in a refugee resettlement camp with his family in Nepal, and this is also where he met his wife, Yogeswari Khadka. The pair grew up together and after living in the refugee camp for over 20 years, they brought their daughter to resettle in Burlington, Vermont in 2015. Yogeswari quickly found herself thriving, working hard and making friends. She was even learning how to drive and planned on buying a car of her own. Unfortunately, Aita was struggling with his mental health and had a suicide attempt shortly after arriving in Burlington. After several weeks at University of Vermont’s Medical Center, he continued to struggle and had difficulty maintaining a job. He turned to alcohol, drinking up to 14-15 beers a day.
In 2017, Yogeswari’s parents immigrated from Nepal and began living with the family. The in-laws immediately noticed that the man they saw their daughter marry was not the same as the one they had known from Nepal. Aita now seemed unhappy, and also appeared to get angry easily. He was started on antipsychotic medication for hearing voices, and these auditory hallucinations were progressing and getting worse. Aita did not consistently take this medication despite his wife’s pleas and best efforts. In early October of 2017, Aita walked into a deli and told the employees to call the police as he was having a mental health crisis and had abused his wife the night before. Police investigated, talked to Yogeswari at work, who denied the abuse, and brought Aita back to the University of Vermont’s Medical Center per his request.
Despite the medical team advising Aita that he should stay for further treatment, he discharged himself after three days. Within two hours, police were called to the home by multiple distraught neighbors. When they arrived, they were met with a horrific scene. Aita had asked his wife to grab him a beer, and when she refused, he acted out violently. He grabbed a meat cleaver from the kitchen and began to slash at her. Tulasa Rimal, Yogeswari’s mother, saw the attack and attempted to intervene, putting her hand in front of the cleaver. As a result, she was slashed at several times before Aita hit her over the head, continuing to slash at his wife. Yogeswari attempted to run outside, but the attack continued in broad daylight outside of their home to the shock and horror of their neighbors. Yogeswari was slashed over 22 times, with her mother sustaining severe injuries that she miraculously survived.
Aita Gurung was immediately arrested and held in a psychiatric facility, where his mental health continued to deteriorate. After much back and forth and delay from COVID-19, his trial finally took place in October of 2022. His defense was aiming for an insanity plea, but prosecution argued that Aita had a history of alcohol abuse as well as domestic violence towards Yogeswari, and the attacks stemmed from that rather than insanity.
After a month long trial, with forensic psychiatrists testifying to Aita’s mental health, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder. Despite the jury not finding him insane, a letter was brought forth to the judge that was signed by nine of the 12 jurors, stating that they believed that his mental illness had a very large part to do with his crimes, and that he should be sent to a psychiatric facility instead of a correctional center where he would not get proper care. Due to his mental status, Aita’s sentencing hearing was not held until December of 2023, over a year after he was found guilty. In the end, after a powerful court session with testimony from his mother-in-law, Tulasa Rimal, and his now 13-year-old daughter, Aita Gurung was sentenced to 27-years in prison.
Image sources:
burlingtonfreepress.com - “A resolution that’s been a long time coming: Burlington meat cleaver murderer sentenced”