2 found guilty of murder

Amritai Singh Athwal and Savirant Singh Athwal were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by the Madera County District Attorney’s office.

The verdict came Wednesday in Madera Superior Court for the murder of Dharampreet Singh Jassar, a clerk at the Tackle Box.

The jury convicted the Athwal cousins on April 14 for the first-degree murder of Jassar, which occurred on Nov. 13, 2017.

“It’s a huge tragedy,” said Madera County District Attorney Sally Orme Moreno. “It’s a loss to our community. Dharampreet was a great young man. He was working seven days a week and he was going to Fresno State, majoring in criminal justice. He was going to be a great contributor to either the Madera community and/or the valley community.”

According to Moreno, one of the defendants was a former employee of the Tackle Box and recruited his cousin for the crime.

“The former employee was the mastermind and knew when the best time was to rob the place in terms of who was going to be there with cash and cigarettes,” Moreno said. “The clerk completely complied with what they said and put up no resistance. They got their cash and cigarettes. When they got to the door, the shooter turned around, shot at, and killed the clerk. They got everything they wanted and he did everything they asked him to do.

“It was an absolutely senseless killing. It was murder during the course of a robbery.”

Moreno is happy with the sentencing. She said the sentence was the last honest sentence in California.

“Everybody else is being released substantially early,” she said. “The District Attorney’s Office would again like to offer condolences to the family and thank them for their support during the case.”