THUNDERBOLT, Ga. – On a pleasant November day, a young school teacher came home to her apartment just outside Savannah. She thought she was alone when she returned from Sunday church service, but there was a man inside her apartment.
Once they locked eyes, she says he marched towards her, put his glove-covered hand over her mouth and forced her into the bedroom. Over the next hour she was bound, blindfolded, assaulted and robbed.
On November 19, 2001 the 23-year-old lost more than just her computer, camera and CDs that were stolen. She was physically tormented and her sense of safety was shattered.
It would be nearly two weeks before two men were arrested for the crime. She would then wait almost two years for a trial to take place.
In June of 2003, Sandeep “Sonny” Bharadia was sentenced to life in prison for the attack and robbery. A second man, Sterling Flint, took a plea deal to testify against Bharadia. Flint walked away with a two-year sentence and credit for time served.
The bombshell came in 2011, eight years after the verdict. Newly tested DNA evidence was discovered on the gloves worn by the attacker. Instead of confirming that Bharadia wore the gloves, the DNA matched to Sterling Flint, the man who testified against him.
No jury has ever seen the DNA test results connecting Sterling Flint to the crime scene.
After the discovery of the DNA evidence, Bharadia’s attorneys filed a motion for a new trial. It was denied based on a legal technicality, specific to Georgia law. While the DNA test results implicated someone else, it was not considered newly discovered evidence. This was because the gloves were presented in the original trial before they had been checked for DNA.
Who is Sonny Bharadia?
The judge said Bharadia and his legal team should have done their “due diligence” to run DNA testing on the gloves before his trial in 2003.
Now, Bharadia’s lawyers are fighting to have that evidence heard in court for the first time with a last-ditch effort called habeas corpus. It’s a motion arguing that Bharadia’s wrongfully imprisoned, based on an inadequate defense during his original trial and evidence pointing to another man.
“Nothing ties my client to this case forensically. The person testifying against him as the state's key witness was the only person whose DNA is present at the scene. If the jury knew now what we all knew now, I think there's no question they would not have convicted him,” explains Bharadia’s attorney Holly Pierson.
Since his arrest, Sonny Bharadia has always maintained his innocence. "I want people to see that injustice is done and the fact that it can be corrected. People need to hear the story,” Bharadia said.
He’s spent 17 years in jail for a conviction he says is unjust. In fact, he was offered a plea deal for just 10 years. A sentence that would have been up years ago, if he had only admitted guilt.
“I’m just hoping that somebody acts on the evidence. I just want the truth to come out. It’s like I’m not the person,” he said.
"Shadow of Doubt" is a five episode, Atticus original series. Stay with us as we dig into the hidden details of past, and we follow Sonny Bharadia’s fight for his future.
