A Glendale Heights father accused of setting his two sons on fire has offered to admit he killed them, but only if his own life is spared.
DuPage County Public Defender Robert Miller said in court Thursday that Kaushik J. Patel wants to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison if prosecutors drop their intention to seek the death penalty.
DuPage State's Attorney Joseph Birkett declined to say if he will accept the plea offer, but a decision may come as early as the next court date on Sept. 11.
Patel, 34, is charged with causing the fatal injuries Nov. 18 after luring his two sons with new toy cars into a bathroom of their home on the 1800 block of Harvest Lane and setting them on fire with gasoline.
The boys' mother was not home when the fire broke out.
Afterward, Kaushik Patel buckled the children into the back seat of his car and drove them to his older brother's house about five miles away in Hanover Park. A relative called 911.
The boys weren't expected to survive that first night, but struggled for months inside Loyola Medical Center's burn unit in Maywood. The youngest child, Om, 4, was the first to die, on Jan. 17. Vishv, 7, survived several surgeries but took a sudden turn for the worse and died Feb. 19.
Their father survived severe burns. He has remained in DuPage County jail on a $10 million cash bond since his Feb. 15 release from the hospital.
Kaushik Patel declined a request Thursday to be interviewed. But, in a March 7 jailhouse interview, he told the Daily Herald it was an accident and he meant to harm only himself in a botched suicide attempt.
"It wasn't murder," he said. "No one understands. I love my kids. I was not trying to kill them, only me."
Patel said he was suicidal over marital problems that arose after his mother-in-law moved in with the couple a few years earlier. He and his wife, Nishaben, wed Aug. 12, 1997, in an arranged marriage in their native India, five years after he had immigrated to the United States.
The couple divorced July 1 after reaching an agreement in which Kaushik Patel voluntarily relinquished any right to their home, two cars, $25,000 in jewelry and the boys' life-insurance policies.
Authorities said they don't believe the accident defense. They said both boys' injuries were much more severe, indicating they had more gasoline doused on them than their father. Police also said Patel made incriminating statements that night to his brother in which he admitted it was a botched murder-suicide attempt.
