Mother of slain doctor testifies at hearing: ‘I do not understand what happened’
Nancy Palatty said she did not know anything was wrong at the northwest valley home she shared with her daughter and son-in-law before police banged on the front door on the morning of April 15.
Officers told her that they were responding to a report of two injured people, and she was escorted outside.
Police found her daughter, 28-year-old Dr. Gwendoline Amsrala, dead in her bedroom from multiple stab wounds. Next to her body was Amsrala’s husband, 33-year-old Shiva Gummi, who was suffering from self-inflicted stab wounds.
“I still do not understand what happened in that house that night,” Palatty testified during Gummi’s preliminary hearing on Tuesday.
Gummi faces a charge of murder with a deadly weapon in connection with the killing.
According to an arrest report, Gummi called 911 on April 15 to say that he fatally stabbed his wife and that he had stabbed himself repeatedly. When police arrived at the home in the 1300 block of Torington Drive, near Torrey Pines Drive and Vegas Drive, they found Amsrala with stab wounds to her arms, abdomen and throat.
Amsrala, a doctor who graduated from UNLV’s Kirk Kerkorian School of Medicine in 2022, had celebrated the end of her first year of residency at University Medical Center with other resident physicians the day before she was killed.
The preliminary hearing that began Tuesday is set to conclude Aug. 28, when Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Harmony Letizia is expected to determine if there is enough evidence for Gummi to stand trial.
Palatty, who said she suffers from a terminal illness and is partially deaf, testified Tuesday that she moved into the home about 10 months before her daughter was killed.
She said she never saw the couple argue in front of her and didn’t witness any domestic violence between them. Palatty told the judge that she didn’t hear a disturbance the night before Amsrala’s body was found.
The day before, Gummi had questioned Amsrala after she spent the night at a friend’s house because Amsrala was worried about the friend who had been drinking, Palatty said.
An officer wrote in Gummi’s arrest report that Palatty told police Gummi was “upset with Gwendoline” for staying at the friend’s house.
“I was there with him, we were asking what happened,” Palatty said Tuesday, recalling the morning her daughter returned home.
Amsrala’s body was found on a blood-soaked bed, with a razor blade beside her, Metro Detective James Milligan testified Tuesday. A bloody knife was found in the bedroom’s bathroom, and there were no signs of forced entry, he said.
Gummi remained in the Clark County Detention Center on Tuesday without bail.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.