Timothy Mwandi Church was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder, malicious wounding and attempted robbery in the brutal beating of a Roanoke motel manager in 2018.
Timothy Church
Timothy Mwandi Church (left), 28, with his then-defense attorney Dirk Padgett at Church's trial in September 2019.
The Roanoke Times, File 2019
Jyotsana Patel
Jyotsana Patel testified Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court about the attack that left her husband, 60-year-old Ishvarlal Patel, dead of blunt force trauma to the head. She suffered a fractured collarbone and a broken wrist during the January 2018 incident.
NEIL HARVEY | The Roanoke Times
E.S. Woodson
Roanoke Police Officer E.S. Woodson displays the baseball bat that was owned by Ishvarlal Patel. Investigators say it was taken from him by Timothy Church and used as the weapon in his death. Patel, 60, died Jan. 23, 2018, of blunt force trauma to the head.
NEIL HARVEY | The Roanoke Times
Andrew Stephens
Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Andrew Stephens said Timothy Mwandi Church used a baseball bat to fatally strike Ishvarlal Kuvarji Patel at the Starlite Motel.
NEIL HARVEY | The Roanoke Times
Timothy Church
An arial photograph shows the stretch of Melrose Avenue where Ishvarlal Patel, 60, was killed. He was attacked in January 2018 at the Starlite Motel, a business he owned. The man convicted Tuesday in his death fled across the street and was arrested near the Country Cookin' restaurant in northwest Roanoke.
Stark evidence and detailed testimony this week did not answer every question about the brutal 2018 slaying of a southwest Roanoke motel manager, but the pictures they drew were harrowing and potent.
