Judge in Tushar Atre murder case rejects defense effort to challenge surveillance-footage search warrant
Quick Take
The attorney for one of the defendants, Stephen Lindsay, argued Wednesday that Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office investigators made misleading statements in a search warrant for surveillance footage from a Las Vegas gym. Prosecutors say that footage matches the appearances of Lindsay and another suspect with those of figures captured in surveillance footage from near Atre’s Pleasure Point residence around the time Atre was killed in October 2019.
A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a request by a lawyer for one of defendants in the case of the murder of tech executive and cannabis entrepreneur Tushar Atre to toss surveillance footage allegedly identifying suspects as the case inches closer to trial.
Marsanne Weese, the attorney for Stephen Lindsay, argued that Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Office investigators made misleading statements in a search warrant for surveillance footage from a Las Vegas gym. Prosecutors say the Las Vegas footage matches the appearances of Lindsay and another suspect, Kaleb Charters — including one of the men’s distinctive walk and stance — with those of figures captured in surveillance footage from near Atre’s Pleasure Point residence around the time Atre was killed in October 2019.
Weese had requested a Franks hearing related to the footage — a hearing that determines whether an officer made false statements to obtain a search warrant that yielded incriminating evidence.
She argued that investigators had mischaracterized a witness’s identification of Lindsay and Charters in the surveillance footage taken from near Atre’s home. That witness, Ben Hoyt, previously worked with Lindsay and Charters.
Weese said law enforcement said in the warrant that Hoyt had positively identified the two suspects in the Pleasure Point surveillance video with certainty, when he never actually did. Further, she said that Hoyt said that he is “biased,” because he previously felt the two were “suspicious.” Essentially, Weese argued that there was not sufficient probable cause to support a search.
Assistant district attorney Michael McKinney countered that Weese misrepresented law enforcement’s exact words in the warrant. He read from the warrant, where it says that Hoyt “believed” that Lindsay and Charters were in the Pleasure Point surveillance video. He also gave further descriptions of the two, including that they had a military background, came from Southern California to work on Atre’s cannabis farm, and were of similar physique to the figures in the video taken from near Atre’s home.
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McKinney also stated that Hoyt told investigators to speak with Sam Borghese, another employee of Atre’s who had hired Lindsay and Charters, to corroborate the information and give them the two men’s names. The warrant described the detective speaking with Borghese, who gave them Lindsay and Charters’ names.
Weese, however, maintained that she believes law enforcement jumped to conclusions from insufficient evidence since neither Hoyt or Borghese definitively said that Charters and Lindsay were in the Pleasure Point video.
Judge Stephen Siegel denied the request for a Franks hearing and said that the defense did not “sufficiently establish that intentional misrepresentations were made with reckless disregard for the facts.”
On Oct. 1, 2019, investigators with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office found the 50-year-old Atre fatally shot and stabbed in the Santa Cruz Mountains near his cannabis farm on Soquel San Jose Road near the summit. The four suspects — Lindsay, Kaleb Charters, Kurtis Charters and Joshua Camps — were arrested in May 2020 and charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Tushar Atre murder: Case against one suspect in killing of Pleasure Point tech exec returns to court
Tushar Atre murder: Case against one suspect in killing of Pleasure Point tech exec returns to court
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More than three years after four suspects were charged in the murder of Pleasure Point tech entrepreneur Tushar Atre,...
At the time of the arrest, investigators said Lindsay and Kaleb Charters were former employees of Atre’s, who they believed had been in a dispute with the entrepreneur over pay. Detectives testified at a pre-trial hearing that the two men moved to Las Vegas after working for Atre, and when asked for an alibi, Lindsay told investigators he might have been at the gym.
Atre was the chief executive of AtreNet, a web design and marketing firm and also ran Interstitial Systems, a cannabis business.
Weese said in court that she had not yet decided whether to appeal the decision. The next court date in the murder case is set for the week of Oct. 26, to schedule court dates to settle other issues ahead of a trial.
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