New York:
Two Indian-origin cousins have been convicted by a court in the US state of Tennessee of soliciting and conspiring to commit the murder of the wife of one of them in 2013.
Jurors in Murfreesboro found that Prattikumar Patel and his cousin, Kalpesh Patel, were guilty of trying to arrange the murder of Krupaben Patel, the wife of Prattikumar.
Both men were arrested in September 2013 after the suspects asked Rutherford County handyman Chris Robinson to find someone to kill Krupaben. Robinson instead cooperated with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, who set up a taped call with Prattikumar Patel and arrested both men.
"I feel for the family. I feel for Mrs. Patel," said Assistant District Attorney General Sarah Davis after the verdict.
"But they tried to kill her. But for Chris Robinson, she would have been dead. Justice was done," Daily News Journal quoted Davis as saying.
Prosecutors had accused Prattikumar of wanting his wife dead, so he could marry former Sumner County resident Tina Newman.
Prattikumar and Kalpesh will remain jailed at the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center until a sentencing hearing October 16.
Both men face prison sentences between 23 and 90 years based on their convictions on Class A and Class B felonies, the report said.
"We're very disappointed in the verdict and plan to appeal the case," said Ed Yarbrough, who represented Prattikumar Patel, after the verdict.
Jurors began their deliberations on Thursday after Krupaben, the victim of the proposed murder plot, testified in her husband's defense yesterday.
Krupaben Patel told the jury that she did not believe her husband and his cousin had tried to arrange in Rutherford County her death before their arrests.
While she testified that she knew of her husband's years-long affair with Newman, she said she had forgiven him for his actions.
The men owned a handful of convenience stores and gas stations in Sumner and Rutherford counties.