A trial opened Tuesday for a Hammond man charged in a roadway slaying on 165th Street last year.
Trinidad Cervantes, 20, said he feared Rajesh Bhagwandeen, 26, of Hammond, was about to pull out a gun, so he shot him several times first. Cervantes is charged with murder and a gun enhancement in Bhagwandeen’s May 2, 2023 death.
That characterization was disputed by prosecutors and Bhagwandeen’s family.
It was “building a big lie,” Deputy Prosecutor Jacob Brandewie told jurors in opening statements.
The black 1990s BMW that Bhagwandeen, a mechanic, was driving home from work was a “hobby” car, something he tinkered on. It was also “slow,” his father later testified.
Police arrived at 5:09 p.m. May 3, 2023 to the crime scene near 165th Street and Calumet Avenue.
The driver’s door on Bhagwandeen’s black 1996 BMW was still open. The car was in the middle of the street. It had four bullet holes with seven bullet casings found on the street.
He was taken to the hospital after he was shot “several” times. Bhagwandeen was pronounced dead at 5:41 p.m. at Community Hospital, according to court records.
A witness’s dashcam played Tuesday showed the white moving/box truck Cervantes drove pull up behind Bhagwandeen, who was just leaving work that day at Smith Chevrolet, 6405 Indianapolis Blvd. The woman pulled on, but not long after, seven shots were heard from behind. She testified that she tried to chase down the truck to get a license plate number, before a police officer told her to come back to the scene.
Neither she, nor two other witnesses saw Bhagwandeen with a gun, Brandewie said. Cops never found a weapon on him, nor in the car. The vehicle was “riddled” with bullet holes.
Later that evening, cops found the truck parked in an industrial park where Cervantes’ girlfriend’s father worked.
The co-worker there told cops his “demeanor changed” when the daughter called him after 5 p.m. to say Cervantes had shot someone, Brandewie said.
Cervantes was later arrested at a relative’s home in Illinois. He matched the description from witnesses at the scene.
Although acknowledging the shooting was not on video, Brandewie said Cervantes’ actions were suspect afterward. He didn’t “keep his distance,” or call 911, but fled to Illinois.
Defense lawyer John Cantrell said his client’s life was going “magically well” and had no reason to gun someone down, unless he felt threatened.
He was dating his “high school sweetheart”. Her dad gave him work on his crews, who cleaned out foreclosed homes.
He “wasn’t looking for trouble,” the lawyer said.
There was no video from the shooting. Anything could have happened off-camera from one intersection to the next, the lawyer argued. Bhagwandeen was “yelling and cussing” at a 19-year-old Cervantes, who thought the other man was armed and reacted in “three seconds.”
Outside the courtroom, the elder Rajesh Bhagwandeen, the victim’s father, a Trinidad and Tobago native, disputed his son would have snapped at someone on the road.
He was “laid back,” the man said.
The oldest of three brothers, his sons, who grew up in Northwest Indiana, dreamed of opening a mechanic shop together.
His son was two semesters from completing an automotive technology program at Ivy Tech.
His son left behind a pregnant fiancé, who gave birth to a baby girl he never met, he said.
