A Woodside man accused of staging his wife’s fatal shooting as a suicide to collect a hefty insurance payout doesn’t know yet if he’ll stand trial for murder, even as the case crawls toward the one year-anniversary of her April death.
Pooroushasb “Peter” Parineh, 65, was scheduled to pick a preliminary hearing date yesterday. Instead, his defense team asked for more time and Parineh was ordered back to court Feb. 10 to choose a date.
The request is “not unreasonable” considering the “complexity of the case and the number of documents,” said prosecutor Al Giannini.
Defense attorney Paul Canny could not be reached for comment.
Parima Parineh, 56, was found dead April 13 after her husband called to report finding her in a bedroom of their multi-million home on Fox Hill Road in Woodside. He told authorities she had killed herself but was himself arrested for the crime June 17. The case has dragged since that point as the debt-saddled Parineh worked to retain a private attorney and lawyers on both sides work through voluminous evidence, including reams of financial documents.
Parineh is charged with murder for financial gain, a combination that makes him eligible for the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.
Within days of Parima Parineh’s death, authorities say they questioned his suicide story because of the multiple shots she sustained and substantial debt including the home being in foreclosure and life insurance policies rumored to be $20 million. The insurance policy’s suicide exclusion period had passed, making Parineh eligible for a payout if his wife was found to have indeed killed herself.
Canny previously contended that her client was not a beneficiary of any policy, making a financial gain argument moot. Canny has described Parineh as “heartbroken” over the loss of his wife and “innocent.”
Authorities arrested Parineh June 17 in Sunnyvale and he is being held without bail.