Santa Rosa woman allegedly stabbed 37 times by defendant, court testimony shows

A Santa Rosa man is alleged to have stabbed his sister-in-law 37 times last year after she confronted him about abusing her sister, court testimony showed Thursday.

The revelation came Thursday during the preliminary hearing for Varinder Singh, who’s charged with Kuljeet Kaur’s April 25, 2022, murder in a Santa Rosa neighborhood.

Testimony is being delivered before Judge Robert LaForge, who concluded there’s enough evidence for the 35-year-old defendant to stand trial.

Singh will return to court Sept. 7 to schedule a date for trial.

Following Thursday’s hearing, Singh’s defense attorney, Allen Sawyer, said the matter involved a domestic dispute and his client acted in self-defense.

“It’s not a ‘whodunit;’ it’s a ‘why he did it,’” Sawyer said.

The stabbings occurred in and outside the Santa Rosa home on West Creek Lane, where the victim and defendant lived with a woman identified in court as SK.

She’s described as Kaur’s sister and Singh’s wife of three months prior to the stabbings, which occurred in front of neighbors after spilling into the street.

Three investigators provided testimony illustrating the defendant’s demeanor. According to Santa Rosa police Det. Nicholas Gillotte, SK said her husband gets angry easily and had threatened to kill her, her family and himself.

He worked as a long-haul truck driver and his wife had recently gotten her own license. Kaur tried to discourage them from traveling together on a future trip because it would be unsafe.

That led to the confrontation.

Santa Rosa police Officer Julio Del Angel testified he was the first to arrive at a “chaotic” scene April 25 and discovered the victim lying in the street.

“She was laying motionless and there was a lot of blood,” he testified, adding blood was also present inside the home.

Santa Rosa Det. Jesus Avina added a neighbor came out of their home after hearing commotion outside and the defendant told him to go back inside. But he’d seen enough.

“He advised me the male subject had blood on his hands and was holding a knife,” Avina said.

He said the neighbor provided police with surveillance footage showing SK attempting to stop the attack before being pushed aside by Singh.

The footage, Avina said, showed him stabbing Kaur five or six times.

Footage was not presented during Thursday’s hearing.

The defendant fled in a BMW sedan, which set off a search that involved multiple Sonoma County law enforcement agencies, according to Santa Rosa police.

He was taken into custody near Raley’s supermarket in northern Rohnert Park, where police found him in his car about 45 minutes after the stabbing.

The end of Thursday’s hearing revolved around Singh’s interview with police and whether he understood his Miranda Rights.

His first language is Punjabi and he communicated with investigators in broken English before requesting an attorney. Only then did they request an interpreter.

“When he starts talking about a lawyer, whoops, we need an interpreter,” Sawyer said during the hearing.

LaForge ruled no Miranda rights were violated, but the defense could pursue a hearing on the matter.

Sawyer said he would and the goal would be to make the interview inadmissible in Singh’s jury trial.

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi