A Woodside man accused of staging his wife’s fatal shooting as a suicide to collect a hefty insurance payout will learn in June if he’ll stand trial for her murder nearly a year ago.
Pooroushasb Parineh, known as Peter, was arrested in June for the death of his wife, Parima, but a preliminary hearing on the evidence has been stalled several times by his efforts to hire attorneys and the voluminous amount of financial records for both sides to evaluate.
Parineh is now set for the hearing June 1 and prosecutors estimate it will take one day.
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, 56, was killed from several shots in her bedroom April 13. Her husband called to report finding her in a bedroom of their multi-million dollar 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.
Authorities arrested Parineh June 17 in Sunnyvale and he is being held without bail.