Trial to open in 2012 slaying of baby, grandmother
NORRISTOWN (AP) – Jury selection is scheduled Tuesday in the trial of a suburban Philadelphia man accused of having killed a baby and her grandmother in a botched kidnapping plot.
Twenty-seven-year-old Raghunandan Yandamuri of Upper Merion could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in Montgomery County Court.
Prosecutors allege that he kidnapped 10-month-old Saanvi Venna from her family’s King of Prussia apartment in October 2012 and killed the baby’s grandmother after the woman tried to protect the child. The girl’s body was found several days later.
Yandamuri plans to represent himself on charges of first and second degree murder, kidnapping, burglary and robbery. The trial was scheduled to open last week but was delayed to allow him to look into forensic evidence and confer with an investigator.