The day a judge declared a mistrial in the case of a man accused of murdering Denton resident and store owner Samira Siwakoti, relatives laid her husband, Nabaraj "Raj" Siwakoti, to rest in a private ceremony.
The family announced Wednesday on Facebook that Nabaraj Siwakoti died over the weekend. He was 38, according to a Denton police report.
On Thursday, Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney for Denton County, confirmed Nabaraj Siwakoti's death of an apparent suicide.
"We are grieving," she wrote in an email.
Nabaraj and Samira Siwakoti owned the Rapido Convenience Store in The Colony.
"During this time, our family asks for privacy and continued prayers as we get through this difficult time," the family wrote in a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday. "Raj was a son, father, and brother but most of [all] a truly good human being.
Raj and Sami are together again and we will continue to move forward to seek justice for them both."
The Denton couple leave behind two young children who will be cared for by relatives.
Details on exactly when and where Nabaraj Siwakoti died were unavailable at press time.
A relative who answered the door at the Siwakoti home in north Denton declined to comment.
Samira Siwakoti was fatally shot in an apparent robbery at the store she co-owned with her husband in June 2015.
Deon Kingston Jr., a 20-year-old from Frisco, was tried in 158th District Court in connection with Samira Siwakoti's death. The trial began Aug. 1 and concluded in a mistrial Wednesday.
According to a declaration signed by Steve Burgess, the presiding judge in the case, the court declared a mistrial "based upon an oral motion by the defense."
Mick Meyer, Kingston's attorney, said Wednesday that Burgess ruled a mistrial after it was identified that some of "the forensic testing was not yet completed on some of the state's evidence." On Wednesday, he declined comment on what testing had not been completed.
Meyer was unavailable for additional comment Thursday regarding the oral motion he filed that led to the mistrial ruling.
During opening arguments, Meyer argued the prosecution's evidence included a compromised crime scene and an investigation in which investigators did not explore all possible leads.
Certain protocols for preserving the crime scene were not followed, including too much foot traffic through the crime scene and the placement of a tarp over the victim's body, forensic technicians with the Denton County Sheriff's Office said during cross examination at the beginning of trial.
A fingerprint on a soda bottle, removed from a store cooler shortly before the shooting, is said to belong to the shooter. One of the forensic technicians said early on in the trial that the print did not belong to Kingston.
The technician was asked if the fingerprint was tested against other names and possible suspects, and she said no.
Hair or fiber found at the scene was bagged by crime scene investigators. Meyer early in the trial noted that it was released to The Colony police but not tested in relation to the crime.
Beck said Nabaraj Siwakoti committed suicide after viewing video of the crime scene on television.
Members of the Denton County District Attorney's Office attended a private funeral for Nabaraj Siwakoti on Wednesday, she said.
According to a post on a memorial page created shortly after Samira Siwakoti's death, the family has kept news of Nabaraj Siwakoti's death private because members did not want to risk a mistrial in the case of Samira Siwakoti's murder and wanted to have a funeral and privacy without interference.
Nabaraj Siwakoti's brother filed a missing person's report with Denton police on Sunday, stating that he had not had contact with him and was concerned about his welfare. No additional details on the report by Denton police were available at press time.
Kingston is accused of fatally shooting Samira Siwakoti, 31, before fleeing the scene with cash. A grand jury indicted Kingston on a murder charge Sept. 11, and bail was set at $1 million.
The indictment was re-filed in December with changes to the original document's language, Beck previously told the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Police made a second arrest in the convenience store robbery last October. Frisco resident Corderro Michael Ary, 25, was arrested Oct. 16 and indicted on a murder charge in December 2015. He remains in custody and also faces charges of tampering/fabricating physical evidence and arson, according to jail records. His bail, according to records, is set at $1.03 million.
The judge has ordered the case against Kingston to be "reset for jury trial upon a date to be determined," according to the mistrial declaration signed by Burgess.
Because the case is still pending, Burgess is restricted from commenting, according to county officials.
"The family will continue to seek justice even though a mistrial has been declared today at the retrial of the suspect," reads a Facebook post on the Siwakoti memorial page Wednesday.
Kingston is ordered to remain in the Denton County Sheriff's Office custody on the bond set when he was indicted, according to the declaration.
Additionally, Kingston faces aggravated robbery charges in connection with a June 2015 armed robbery at the Check 'n Go in The Colony and a May 2015 convenience store holdup in Frisco. His bond is set at $1.12 million, according to jail records.
http://mydeathspace.com/article/2016...ring_a_robbery