Nov. 28: Raghunandan Yandamuri is escorted to a Montgomery County district court for a preliminary hearing in Bridgeport, Pa. (AP)
BRIDGEPORT, Pa. – A neighbor charged with killing a 10-month-old girl and her grandmother during a botched kidnapping told police he had lost $15,000 gambling at casinos the week before.
A videotaped police statement given by 26-year-old Raghunandan Yandamuri last month has been played at his preliminary hearing near Philadelphia.
In the video, Yandamuri tells police he had a good job and good life but planned the kidnapping to get money from the baby's parents, both software engineers.
Yandamuri says he never meant to hurt anyone and panicked after the grandmother was killed in a struggle with the knife he had brought.
He says he accidentally dropped the baby, put a handkerchief over her mouth to quiet her, and left her in a trash-strewn, unused sauna in their apartment complex.
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