DSA In the News

Hearing date still unset for accused wife-killer

Nearly 10 months after Peter Parineh said he found his wife dead from her own hand, the Woodside man still doesn’t know if he’ll stand trial on charges he killed her and staged it to look as a suicide to collect on hefty insurance policies.

Pooroushasb Parineh, known as Peter, was supposed to receive a preliminary hearing date yesterday but instead more time was sought to comb through more financial records. He now returns to court April 18 — three days after the one-year anniversary of his wife’s death.

The request was the latest of several since Parineh’s arrest weeks after his wife, 56, was killed from several shots in her bedroom April 13.

Considering the number of documents, particularly financial, even prosecutors have said the delays are not unreasonable. Another factor is the severity of the case; Parineh is charged with murder for financial gain, a combination that makes him eligible for the death penalty or life without parole if convicted.

Parima Parineh was found dead  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.

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.

Defense attorney Paula 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.