New York, July 11 (IANS): An Indian-origin man, who was extradited to the US from India to face trial, was sentenced to life for killing his wife and two children in 2008.
Lakshminivasa Nerusu, 46, an unemployed computer software programmer, stabbed his wife 59 times and later slit his two children's throats when they returned to their Michigan home from school Oct 13, 2008.
After the killing, he spent nearly five years on the run in India.
He was arrested in 2013 and extradited back to the US to face the charges. Authorities said domestic problems led to the deaths.
Nerusu, however, insists that he was insane at the time of the brutal killings.
Judge Nanci Grant told him that no murder case in her 18 years on the bench has so affected her, CBS News reported.
"I have never presided over a trial where someone cold-bloodedly in a single swipe murdered their own children," Grant was quoted as telling Nerusu in the Oakland County court.
"I think you must be wholly, completely and vilely selfish," she said.
A jury convicted Nerusu last month of first-degree murder for slaying his wife, Jayalakshmi Nerusu, 37, 14-year-old daughter Tejasvi, and 12-year-old son Siva.
Police checking on the family's welfare found their bodies two weeks later, but by that time, Nerusu was in India.