Jan. 19, 2007 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal Immigrant takes long road to charges of killing roommate By DAVID KIHARA REVIEW-JOURNAL

Pachalo Chipeta Charged with murder in death of roommate Pachalo Chipeta escaped a life of poverty in the African nation of Malawi when he was 12. His immigrant parents took him to America from the Third World country so that he could have a better life. Advertisement "We felt we could give him a better future," said Fay Chipeta, Pachalo Chipeta's stepmother. "Anyone in Africa would love to come to the land of opportunity." But this immigrant story didn't end in success. Chipeta's parents say the 21-year-old lost his way in America. By the time Chipeta was in his late teens, he was smoking marijuana, his parents said. He also was bouncing from job to job with dreams of becoming a rap music producer. But nothing prepared his parents for what happened next. The Metropolitan Police Department has accused Chipeta of killing his roommate, Sanjay Makhijani, with an axe, stuffing the body in a suitcase he bought on the Strip and dumping it in a desert area near Tropicana Avenue and Boulder Highway in early January. Chipeta is detained at the Clark County Detention Center, where he was booked on charges of murder with a deadly weapon. "Pachalo was always a very sweet, sensitive child. He never raised his voice to me," said Fay Chipeta. "We don't know where we went wrong. Should we have brought him here (to America)?" Chipeta's father, Edward Chipeta, said he too was shocked to learn his son is facing charges, because he always tried to instill in him strong values. Speaking via telephone -- he is in South Africa on business -- he said his son never had any trouble adjusting to life in America and was always surrounded by friends. But Edward Chipeta also was frustrated because his son didn't excel in school. "I came all the way (to America) to get him the benefit of school, and he was throwing it away," he said. When Pachalo Chipeta graduated from Clark County High School, his stepmother saw it as a moment for rejoicing because "he accomplished something." But during the following years, Chipeta didn't achieve his dreams of producing rap music. He worked as a telemarketer and sold insurance door to door. His parents divorced when he was 19, and Chipeta left his family's home. He was soon moving so often that his stepmother had difficulty keeping track of where he was living. "Pachalo just became a nomad," she said. At some point, he began living with the 33-year-old Makhijani at an apartment on the 4200 block of Viking Road, near Flamingo Road and Decatur Boulevard. In early January, Chipeta struck Makhijani with an axe while Makhijani sat on a couch in their apartment, police said. He told police he couldn't remember how many times he hit Makhijani, according to a police report. Chipeta then cleaned up the blood, placed Makhijani's body inside a suitcase and put it inside Makhijani's vehicle, the report stated. He then drove around for several days with the body in the car before dumping it in the desert near one of his father's rental homes, close to Sam Boyd Stadium, the report stated. The body was found on Jan. 6 by two teens who were playing in the area. Chipeta was already detained at the Clark County Detention Center when detectives went there to question him about his dead roommate on Tuesday. Police had arrested Chipeta on Jan. 12 and booked him into the jail for burglary and attempted theft. During the interview at the jail, Chipeta told detectives he killed his roommate because Chipeta had been using cocaine and was scared Makhijani "would do him bodily harm," the arrest report stated. Police also said the two had a disagreement over religion, a claim that confused his stepmother because Chipeta, who was raised Baptist, wasn't interested in religion. Fay and Edward Chipeta said they are baffled by a lot of things Chipeta is now accused of. They don't know how a young man known for being polite and mild-mannered can now be accused of such a brutal crime. Was it drugs or self-defense, they wonder. "If Pachalo did this, then I understand that he has to be held responsible for his actions because he is an adult," Fay Chipeta said. "But this offense that he has allegedly done could lead him to get the death sentence. And I guess this is any parents' worst fear."