Mother writes letter to judge asking for no delays in hit and run case

Shiam Sunder Shankara Subramanian

Shiam Sunder Shankara Subramanian

The mother of a high school student killed in August in a hit-and-run involving a school bus has written a letter to a judge seeking to have all continuances or delays denied to prevent the defendant from being deported back to his home country of India.

Shiam Sunder Shankara Subramanian, 25, whose address was initially listed as 3224 Country Brook St., was arrested following the Aug. 30 death of 16-year-old Columbus East High School student Lily J. Streeval.

Subramanian is accused of attempting to drive around a stopped Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. bus with warning lights flashing and arm signal extended, court records state. Investigators say his car struck Streeval as she was crossing rural Gladstone Avenue to board her school bus, which was witnessed also by students already on the bus and a driver stopped behind the bus.

Streeval was later pronounced dead at Columbus Regional Hospital. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the cervical spine and chest, according to Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting, who also ruled the death as a homicide.

Streeval’s mother Teresa Burbrink, sent a letter to Bartholomew Circuit Court Judge Kelly Benjamin asking the court to deny any continuances, postponements or other delays that might be requested so that the case may be heard in Bartholomew County.

“At the last hearing on Nov. 25, the defense stated that Mr. Shankara Subramanian was terminated from his employment in September and if he were unable to secure employment before 60 days from the date of termination, he would lose his work visa,” her letter states. “The defense also states that his immigration status would change to a visitor’s status when his work visa is terminated. It was emplained to me by the deputy prosecutors assigned to the case that at the end of Mr. Shankara Syubramanian’s six-month visitor’s status, he would be deported back to his home country of India and that he would likely would not be returning to stand trial for this case,” Burbrink wrote.

“I am asking the court to deny any request for continuances, postponements or other delays that may be requested, so this case can be heard in a court of law before Mr. Shankara Subramanian leaves the country,” she wrote.

A copy of the letter was forwarded to the prosecution and defense attorneys.

Subramanian’s next court hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday, scheduled as a change of plea hearing.

In the hearing referenced in Burbrink’s letter, held before Special Judge Joe Meek, defense attorney James H. Voyles, Indianapolis, said after Subramanian was fired Sept. 27 as an engineer at Faurecia, immigration law gave him 60 days to find another job. If the defendant remained unemployed after 60 days, the U.S. government could have him deported in six months, the attorney said. Before he was released from jail in early September, the defendant was ordered to surrender his passport, which makes him less of a risk for flight, the defense attorney said.

Subramanian told Meek he had sought employment with at least 20 different employers, and was briefly offered another job in Columbus until the employer did a background check and denied him the job. That has been the case for each job Subramanian has attempted to obtain in Indiana due to the publicity generated by the case, Voyles said then.

Meek denied a request for Subramanian to leave Bartholomew County to take a job in West Chester, Pennsylvania, from a job offer made on Nov. 11.

The $500,000 cash bond that Subramanian paid to be released from jail was intended to ensure that he shows up at all court hearings, Meek said. “The best way to do that is to keep him in our jurisdiction,” said Meek, who also told the defendant he is not convinced that all possible job opportunities in Indiana have been exhausted.

Subramanian is formally charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or catastrophic injury, a Level 4 felony, and passing a school bus when arm signal is extended causing death, a Level 5 felony.

If found guilty on both felony counts, Subramanian could be sentenced to between seven and 26 years in prison, as well as face fines up to $20,000.

A tentative trial date has been set in Circuit Court for Feb. 1.