Naresh Bhatt Murder Trial: Verdict Preview + Recap

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We are just getting word a short time ago that we do have a verdict in this case. The jury is deciding if Naresh killed his wife, Mamta Koffle, Bhatt. [00:00:07] Speaker 2: Last week, Naresh admitted on the stand to cutting up her body and throwing out the remains. I know it sounds awful to hear, but he says Mamta died by suicide. And so as we wait to hear what this verdict is, let's bring in our Katie Lusso. She has been following this case since Mamta was first reported missing back in 2024. [00:00:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, so Katie, before we get to this moment about this verdict, we know that closing arguments moved relatively quickly earlier today. [00:00:37] Katie Lusso: Yeah, they did 45 minutes or so for the prosecution to get through closing arguments, and then we heard from the defense a shorter amount of time there, but we are expecting to see the courtroom start to fill up with people. I can tell you there were a ton of people in the hallway all waiting for this moment, and I just got confirmation now from multiple sources that there, in fact, is a verdict. So right now they are working on getting everyone back up into the courtroom. There's a ton of people in there from the community. So many people invested in what the outcome is, and I can tell you, Mamta's mother or her brother, they are up there in the hallway surrounded by this community who are trying to continue fighting for justice as we have seen these past two years. But it does sound like right now they are working on getting everyone into the courtroom, just getting another text that they are working on getting that done now so that they can bring out the jury and begin the process of sharing what that verdict is. If we want to talk about closing arguments real briefly, I would love to play you some sound of those moments, some of the key moments from the closing arguments this morning, both by the Commonwealth and by the defense. If you want to take a listen. [00:01:43] Speaker 4: All the defendant has done that you've seen from the moment that Mamta went missing, all he did was lie. He lied to every single person. The defendant wants you to believe that Mamta committed suicide. [00:02:05] Speaker 5: No one was there but Mr. Bott. And that is also undisputed. His description of what he did and how he did it was brutal. It was grotesque, but it was also detailed and consistent. His story to you over three days of testimony did not change. [00:02:28] Speaker 1: Boy, Katie, what I find interesting here as well, we've talked about this case often. We heard a lot about the prosecution side, what they revealed, some of the evidence that they had. But listening here to the defense here in this closing argument, they seem to paint Mamta in their words as a not so pure victim. That was quite surprising for them to take that approach. [00:02:49] Speaker 2: It seems like a risky strategy too. [00:02:53] Katie Lusso: You know, especially when you have a courtroom full of people who are there to support Mamta's family, it was an interesting choice of words. I don't know that it was well-received by the jurors, but a lot of Naresh's statements weren't necessarily well-received by the jurors. You know, we're asking for this jury, eight women and four men, to consider that Naresh Bott decided to tell the truth this time after telling so many other people, like we heard the prosecution say, this other story that Mamta was missing. He didn't know where she was. And, you know, when you talk about what he told the court, he said that he only lied for two to three weeks. But we're talking about the first time police came to his home when he told them when they knocked on his door looking for Mamta that he didn't know where his wife was, that he, she broke her phone. They got into an argument. She broke her phone. She went to New York or Texas. Then we hear him telling another police officer that he doesn't know where she is. He thinks she's at work. He tells the media that he doesn't know where she is. He says they last had dinner together the night of July 31st. And then he gets on the stand last week and he tells the court that he did know where Mamta was this entire time. And keep in mind, this is the first time the prosecution heard this version of events. This was the first time the public heard these events and it was the first time Mamta's family heard these events. They've been in Nepal. They moved or they came to the United States back in 2024 to help with the search efforts because they felt like Naresh wasn't doing enough and they worried, they said, that Naresh had done something to her. So they came here to help with search efforts for two years. Mamta's mother and her brother have been here trying to get answers about what happened to Mamta and they asked Naresh what happened and he told them she was missing, that she went to work. He didn't know. And now he's going to get up there and say this completely different story. And, you know, we heard from the judge because the defense didn't want some of the things to be said regarding whether or not he was lying for two years, that conversation of was he lying for two years or was he lying for a few weeks? And the defense said that he told his first attorney two weeks after he was arrested this version of events that Mamta died by suicide and that he did chop her up, but it was because he panicked. But the judge pointed out that he had motive at this point. He was already arrested. He had seen what police, the case police, were building against him. So he had motive to come up with this story and she questioned why he didn't share that story much earlier. [00:05:14] Speaker 2: All right, Katie, I didn't know if you were going to go to some sound or if we're still talking about this. So essentially what this jury is to decide here is whether to believe Naresh Bhatt's account that he dismembered his wife only after she committed suicide or whether prosecutors proved that he planned and that he carried out her killing. That's essentially where we are right here, right? Because it's really just the murder charge in question at this point because he's already said that I concealed it, I defiled the body, here's why I did it. So we're talking about the murder charge essentially at this point, right? [00:05:52] Katie Lusso: Yeah, it's the question of whether or not he actually killed her. He says it was suicide, but did he kill her or did he not kill her? And then it's whether it was premeditated or not premeditated. So the jurors were asked to consider the charge of first-degree murder, which does include that premeditated. But they're also allowed to consider the second-degree murder. I will say they're coming back rather quickly, which is not surprising when you think about what has happened the last week and a half, but still surprising when you think about how many witnesses have been called, almost 100 witnesses, and then the amount of evidence that we have seen, just so many body-worn camera clips, so many pieces of evidence, so much surveillance footage. They really had a lot of information thrown at them these past six weeks. This trial was expected to take seven weeks. We are only in week six. So, you know, we saw things start to really pick up towards the end, but they did have to consider a lot, and they still have to consider all of the things they've seen and heard, but I think what happened last week plays a huge factor in how they determine whether or not they believe he killed his wife or she died by suicide.