Left inset: Kaleb Charters (Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office). Right inset: Tushar Atre (Santa Cruz Sentinel/obituary). Background: Police at the farm where Kaleb Charters killed Tushar Atre just two months after Atre forced Charters to do 500 pushups for a paycheck (KSBW/YouTube).
A California cannabis worker was convicted Wednesday of murder and other crimes for the brutal killing of a marijuana and tech entrepreneur who created a hostile and torturous work environment that included doing pushups for paychecks. Prosecutors said the employee slaughtered the multimillionaire CEO with three others at the very same location where the work abuse unfolded.
"It's fitting where they chose to take him to," Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Michael McKinney told jurors during closing arguments on Monday, according to the Los Gatan newspaper, in reference to the marijuana farm where 25-year-old Kaleb Charters murdered CEO Tushar Atre. Charters was accused of killing Atre with his brother, Kurtis Charters, and brother-in-law, Stephen Lindsay, who were convicted earlier this year. A fourth alleged participant, Joshua Camps, is currently waiting for his trial to resume.
Charters, a former U.S. Army National Guard member, was found guilty on all counts he faced in connection with the Atre slaying, including kidnapping and burglary, according to local CW affiliate KRON. He testified during his trial this month about Atre's paycheck ultimatum.
"You guys are in the Army. Do 500 pushups," Charters recounted Atre telling him and Lindsay, another former National Guard member, according to KRON.
Charters testified that he and Lindsay — who was also convicted of first-degree murder, along with Kurtis Charters — had lost keys to a farm vehicle nicknamed the "Monster Truck" and Atre was livid. This was just two months before the Santa Cruz-based boss was kidnapped, robbed, stabbed and shot to death, according to prosecutors.
"Tushar was flipping out," Charters testified, noting how he and Lindsay had just planted hundreds of cannabis plants in the Santa Cruz Mountains, allegedly working 10 days straight from dawn until dusk for $200 a day. "He was going to cancel the checks."
Charters, Lindsay and Kurtis Charters allegedly recruited Camps to take part in a planned robbery of $1 million at Atre's home. Things went wrong, though, when Atre managed to escape, according to prosecutors.
"Lindsay tackles him in the street," McKinney said during closing arguments, according to KRON.
"Camps … started stabbing him over, and over, and over," the prosecutor explained, while showing jurors photos of an SUV with Atre's blood smeared all over it. "Tushar, for a second time, ran for his life. Kurtis grabbed him and threw him in this car."
McKinney described how the men allegedly drove Atre to a Santa Cruz cannabis property to finish him off, with Lindsay yelling at him during the drive. "Why are you so mean to people?" Lindsay shouted, according to a confession that police say Camps gave after his arrest.
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According to KRON, employees came forward and accused Atre of creating a toxic work environment to the point where staffers often "joked" behind his back about robbing or hurting him before Atre's murder. They said he yelled at workers repeatedly, withheld and bounced their paychecks, and fired employees if he felt disrespected by them.
"They were humiliated in front of people," Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Detective Ethan Rumrill testified in late October about Kaleb Charters and Lindsay, according to KRON.
Sam Borghese, another cannabis worker, took the stand last month and accused Atre of being a boss who "pushed his employees very hard."
"Did Mr. Atre invoke fear in his employees? (So) people would work harder for him?" Charters' defense attorney, Thomas Brewer, asked Borghese.
"Yes," Borghese replied.
Video of the alleged confession that Camps gave to police after his arrest was played in court during Charters' trial, in which he described how the group allegedly murdered Atre.
"We zip-tied his hands, shoved a sock in his mouth," Camps allegedly said. "I told him no one wants to hurt you, we are just here for your stuff. He kept saying, 'Who are you guys?' He didn't know what was going on. … He was covered in blood. He was saying, 'Please let me go.'"
Camps allegedly admitted to stabbing Atre in the neck after he tried to escape. He confessed to shooting him with an AR-15 rifle several times in the jaw and the back of the head afterward to put him out of his misery, according to police.
"He wasn't going to last much longer," Camps said on the video shown in court. "I knew he was going to die."
Camps is still in custody, where he faces several counts ranging from carjacking to murder, online records show. He is facing charges of kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking and first-degree murder. Lindsay and Kurtis Charters were convicted of murder and both sentenced to life in prison without parole.