A tech tycoon who was abducted, stabbed and shot dead in central California had bullied and humiliated his employees ahead of his grisly murder, a court heard.
Tushar Atre, 50, was dragged out of bed at his Santa Cruz beach house around 3am on October 1, 2019, by a group of men who broke into his plush $5.4 million residence.
The men – two of whom were his employees – stabbed and kidnapped the millionaire, before shooting him and leaving him for dead 14 miles away in a rural mountain area, investigators alleged.
They also stole thousands of dollars in cash from a safe in Atre’s home.
Stephen Nicholas ‘Nic’ Lindsay and Kurtis Charters were convicted of murder and related charges in trials earlier this year, KRON reported. They have been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Charters’s younger brother Kaleb Charters and their friend Joshua Camps have also been charged in Atre’s death.
The younger Charters was back in court on Monday as experts and witnesses testified before the jury, alleging that the men had been ‘humiliated’ at the hands of the tech honcho.
Atre, who bragged about being ‘worth thousands of dollars an hour,’ forced Lindsay and Kaleb to perform between 300 to 500 push-ups in order to receive their $1,400 paychecks, Atre’s right-hand-man Sam Borghese testified.
Millionaire tech and cannabis tycoon Tushar Atre, 50, was abducted, stabbed and shot dead in Santa Cruz, California on October 1, 2019
Artre was dragged out of bed at his $5.4 million beach house (pictured) around 3am after a group of men broke into the home. The group stabbed and kidnapped him, before shooting him and leaving him for dead 14 miles away in a rural mountain area, investigators alleged
Lindsay and Kaleb, both of whom were members of the Army National Guard, were hired to work at Atre’s marijuana farm in August 2019.
For his part, Borghese – a graduate of the University of California Santa Cruz – had been hired to manage the cannabis business.
Atre ‘pushed his employees very hard’, invoked fear, and would frequently yell, withhold pay and fire workers if he felt disrespected, Borghese told the court.
Lindsay and Kaleb performed manual labor on Atre’s farm for nearly two weeks, working from sunrise to sunset, the jury heard.
During their employment, Borghese was tasked with driving the duo approximately 300 miles to Humbolt County to purchase hundreds of marijuana plants.
Atre had given them $25,000 in cash to carry out the transaction, Borghese said.
The business manager explained that the pair, after receiving pay for their work, ‘told me they needed a break, because this was very intense work’.
After Lindsay and Kaleb left, it soon emerged that keys to a farm truck were missing. Atre seemingly assumed that the pair had taken them.
‘Tushar got really upset. Tushar called the bank and bounced the checks,’ Borghese told the court, according to KRON.
Kaleb Charters (left) appeared in court Monday. He has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He is also charged with robbery, burglary, kidnapping and carjacking. His friend Joshua Camps (right) has also been charged in Atre’s death. Camps’s trial is currently paused
Stephen Nicholas ‘Nic’ Lindsay (left) and Kurtis Charters (right) were convicted of murder and related charges in trials earlier this year. Both were sentenced to life in prison without parole
Three suspects were caught on surveillance camera walking near the 50-year-old’s home with a duffel bag and rifle on October 1, 2019
Atre was seen on surveillance footage being kidnapped from his Santa Cruz home in a white SUV BMW (circled) that the suspects stole from the home
Atre’s right-hand-man Sam Borghese (pictured) testified in court Monday, telling the jury how the millionaire bullied and humiliated his employees ahead of his grisly murder
The duo returned to the farm, located the keys at the property and confronted Atre about the bounced checks, prompting an argument.
Atre allegedly bragged about his wealth to the duo and highlighted how ‘anyone who wastes his time is costing money’. He also ordered them to do hundreds of push-ups, the court heard.
Just weeks later, in September 2019, the pair approached Borghese and requested the security code for their boss’s home. They allegedly said they planned to rob Atre.
Borghese believed they were joking and provided them with a fake code, he testified.
The duo then recruited Charters’s older brother and Camps to help them rob Atre.
Charters drove Lindsay, Camps and his brother to Atre’s beach house on October 1, dropped them off, and drove away, investigators told the court.
Surveillance cameras captured Atre running down his street and screaming for help before he was tackled by the trio and stabbed.
Lindsay, Camps and Kurtis Charters forced Atre into a stolen BMW and took him to his cannabis farm in the mountains. Kaleb Charters was waiting for them at the property.
Camps shot Atre in the back of the head and the group left him for dead. His body was found in the BMW several hours later.
In the days following the murder, Lindsay and Kaleb Charters deposited cash into their personal bank accounts and attempted to use Atre’s banking details to pay their bills, credit cards and transfer funds via PayPal.
Atre (pictured) ‘pushed his employees very hard’, invoked fear, and would frequently yell, withhold pay and fire workers if he felt disrespected, Borghese told the court
Atre was the founder of Interstitial Systems, a cannabis business with a laboratory on Fern Street in Santa Cruz (pictured) and a farm in the Santa Cruz mountains
Kaleb Charters (left) and Stephen Lindsay (right) are seen working on Tushar Atre’s cannabis farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 2019
Kaleb Charters has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He is also charged with robbery, burglary, kidnapping and carjacking.
His attorney argued that although Charters agreed to participate in the burglary, he never intended to be part of a murder.
The defense told the court his accomplices diverted from the plan, which was to break into Atre’s home while he was out of town and steal cash and a vehicle.
Charters dropped the trio off and went to the meeting place at the farm, the defense argued. It is only there that he learned of the change of plans.
‘Kaleb never touched Tushar,’ his attorney told the court, highlighting how Camps shot him and how Charters did not burglarize the home or attack Atre on the street.
Charters’s trial will continue Tuesday. Camps’s trial, meanwhile, has been paused and will resume after the jury reaches a verdict in the current case.
