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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).
On Wednesday, a worker from California’s cannabis sector was found guilty of murder and additional charges for the violent homicide of a marijuana and technology entrepreneur. This business owner had reportedly enforced a harsh and torturous work culture, where employees had to perform pushups to receive their salaries. According to prosecutors, the worker, along with three accomplices, murdered the multimillionaire CEO at the very site where the alleged workplace mistreatment occurred.
“The location they chose was symbolic,” remarked Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Michael McKinney to the jury during his closing arguments on Monday, as reported by the Los Gatan. He referred to the marijuana farm where the 25-year-old Kaleb Charters killed CEO Tushar Atre. Charters, along with his brother Kurtis and brother-in-law Stephen Lindsay, had already been convicted earlier this year. Another accused, Joshua Camps, is awaiting the continuation of his trial.
Kaleb Charters, a former member of the U.S. Army National Guard, was convicted on all counts related to Atre’s murder, including charges of kidnapping and burglary, as reported by local CW affiliate KRON. During his trial, he testified about Atre’s coercive demands for earning paychecks.
“You guys are in the Army. Do 500 pushups,” Charters recalled Atre commanding him and Lindsay, also a former National Guard member, according to KRON.
Charters testified that both he and Lindsay, who was likewise found guilty of first-degree murder along with Kurtis Charters, had misplaced the keys to a farm vehicle known as the “Monster Truck,” which infuriated Atre. This incident occurred just two months before the Santa Cruz-based executive was kidnapped, robbed, stabbed, and fatally shot, as outlined by the prosecution.
“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.
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.