The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has upheld the conviction and 62-year prison sentence against a Standish man for murdering a Westbrook woman to collect a $100,000 life insurance policy.
In a decision issued on Monday, the court unanimously rejected the appeal of Santanu Basu, 37. Basu was appealing his March, 2002, conviction of murdering Azita Jamshab, 29, of Westbrook.
At his trial, Basu was convicted of murdering Jamshab in March, 2002, by taking her to a gravel pit in Cumberland and shooting her four times.
Jamshab, who had immigrated to the United States from Iran, had just been through a divorce and had met Basu when she had bought an insurance policy from him in January, 2002.
Court documents said Jamshab purchased a $100,000 life insurance policy from Basu, with Basu named as the primary beneficiary.
On March 6, 2002, court papers said Jamshab told a co-worker that she was going on “a date” with Basu that evening.
After having dinner with her in Brunswick, court papers said Basu took Jamshab to a gravel pit off Goose Pond Road in Cumberland where he shot her four times, using a pillow to suppress the noise of the gunshot.
In his appeal, Basu claimed that at his trial the judge improperly denied his motion to suppress physical evidence due to improper search warrants and that there was not enough evidence against him to support a conviction.
The Supreme Court denied Basu’s claims, ruling that a judge properly issued the search warrant in question and the 62-year sentence was not out of line in the case of a murder where the murderer stands to make a financial gain from the killing.
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