It took a jury less than four hours to convict a Queens man for the cold-blooded murder of his parents because they’d cut him off financially.
Prosecutor Brad Leventhal proved to the panel that Shane Jaggarnauth and an unknown accomplice killed his parents, Rosie and Sugrim, with the motivation of “greed and desperation.”
“We are very sad because this is my nephew, but happy with the verdict because justice has been done,” said Jaggarnauth’s uncle, Cliff Ramkissoon, outside of Queens Supreme Court Wednesday after the jury rendered their verdict.
Jaggarnauth remained stone-faced as the forewoman announced “guilty” for the first and second-degree murders of the loving couple, whom he ambushed as they slept in their Springfield Gardens home on Sept. 2, 2011 — the morning of their 30th wedding anniversary.
The 25-year-old murderer faces life in prison with no possibility of parole when sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory Lasak on June 25.
“It was a really hard decision, very difficult for us, but the prosecutor did a phenomenal job. The defense kind of made us think differently, but there was no evidence or solid facts to back up his theory,” said a juror who declined giving her name.
Jaggarnauth was also convicted of weapons possession.
The jurors did not buy Jaggarnauth’s story that his parents were killed during a push-in robbery planned by his older brother, Shawn and a pal.
Sugrim, 64, was shot execution-style in the middle of his forehead and died immediately, a medical examiner testified during the three-week trial.
Rosie, 56, was awaken by the noise and was hit with three blasts before making a desperate call to 911 as the shooter left their bedroom. Jurors listened to the chilling emergency call — made as two more bullets were heard being fired into Rosie’s body.
Jaggarnauth also suffered a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the shoulder, in order to complete the home invasion plot, the prosecutor said.
“I don’t have anything to say right now to him,” said Shawn as he wiped away tears outside of court.
The mother, who worked at Home Depot, removed Jaggarnauth from a joint bank account 60 days prior to the murders when she learned he forged her signature on a $10,000 check and cashed it into his own account.
“Rosie never approved of him raiding the account to the tune of $16,000, she and her husband were hard-working middle class people and all he wanted to do was buy flowers and Edible Arrangements for his girlfriend,” said Leventhal during his closing arguments on Tuesday afternoon.