Fate of Novi Man Who Stabbed Wife Nearly 60 Times, Slit Children's Throats in Hands of Jury

Lakshminivasa Nerusu felt trapped in an unhappy marriage and stabbed his wife nearly 60 times, then waited for his children to come home from school and slit their throats to gain his freedom, the prosecutor said in closing arguments at his trial in Oakland County Circuit Court Wednesday.

Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Tricia Dare said that despite Nerusu’s claim that he loved his wife and children, he wanted his freedom more, the Detroit Free Press reports.

“The defendant wants you to believe he loved his family but actions speak louder than words, and his actions spoke of anything but love,” Dare said.

Nerusu, a 47-year-old unemployed software engineer who hid out in India for five years after killing his family in their rented Novi townhouse, claimed he was temporarily insane at the time and doesn’t remember the gruesome slayings.

He faces three premeditated first-degree murder charges in the deaths his wife, 37-year-old Jayalakshimi; his daughter, 14-year-old Tejasvi; and his son, Siva Kumar, 12.

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Nerusu’s attorney, Lawrence Kaluzny, said only mental illness could explain his client’s actions.

“You don’t do what he did to his family without having having mental illness,”  Kalunzy said. “His wife belittled him, she nagged him, we can only guess how it affected the depression he was in. It sent him over the edge. Certainly, I’m not saying his wife and kids deserved to die, but it did push him over the edge.”