APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A man who was on the run for a decade has been sentenced for spiking his girlfriend’s drink to try to cause a miscarriage of the couple’s child.
Manishkumar Patel, 45, was sentenced in Outagamie County court Tuesday to 22 years in prison followed by 4 years extended supervision.
Patel was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child in the 2007 incident. The woman did not ingest the drink, but later miscarried, authorities say.
Outagamie County Court district attorney, Melinda Tempelis said the victim did not ingest the drink but instead sent it to a lab for testing in California. Tempelis said the victim has a miscarriage a week before getting the results.
“They have discovered swabs of RU486 from the smoothie that she had sent to them. RU486 is an abortion drug, it is not the morning after pill, it cannot be dispensed by general doctors or prescribed or available through pharmacy,” Tempelis explained.
Tempelis said during a search warrant at Patel’s home, the Outagamie County Sherriffs Department found an envelope containing the pills.
“The defendant indicated that he had it sent to him from a friend in India when he didn’t want to have anymore children,” Tempelis said.
In court, Patel claimed he didn’t want another child because he was afraid the child would suffer the same medical problems as his son, who is also the victim’s son.
“I took a life of an unborn child, I realized that even if the child had some sort of medical problems, he would still have had a life,’ said Patel.
As part of a plea deal, bail jumping charges were dismissed, but the judge was able to consider them at sentencing.
Patel skipped town after the charges were filed in 2007, forfeiting a $750,000 cash bond. He said he skipped town to go to India.
“I felt this was what I had to do to see my father one last time, my father is still alive but had medical issues,” Patel said.
He was arrested in 2017 in New York and was returned to Outagamie County, where a total bond of $50 million cash was set.
