A the Honolulu jury returned a verdict of not guilty on July 11 in the manslaughter trial of 39-year-old Pittsburgh resident Benjamin Fleming, who was charged last year with the death of fellow schoolmate and Deloitte Consulting employee Abhishek Gupta while the two were vacationing with another friend in Hawaii.
“I emphasized throughout the trial that Mr. Gupta’s death was undoubtedly a tragedy, but it was not a crime. Fortunately, the jury accepted and we appreciate their service,” Fleming’s attorney, Thomas Otake, said in an email to The Associated Press. “While Ben and I are surely relieved, we remain mindful of the loss to the Gupta family.”
Fleming, Gupta and their friend Alexander Germany-Wald-all three in the same class of 2020 MBA graduates at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh— traveled to Hawaii in late March 2021 to celebrate their graduation and rented an Airbnb in Kailua-Kona.
After a long night of drinking on March 28, Germany-Wald and Gupta left a bar after Gupta was reportedly told to leave and return to the vacation home. Fleming stayed back. In a preliminary hearing on April 9, 2021, Germany-Wald, who also works for Deloitte Consulting in Boston, testified that Gupta got “psychotically” drunk on that first night of vacation.
At one point that evening, the two had a fistfight, with Gupta on top of Germany-Wald and punching him, Germany-Wald testified in court. Fleming reportedly returned home as the physical confrontation occurred. Fleming, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, strangled Gupta from behind to restrain him, an action called by Big Island Assistant District Attorney Chase Murray. “reckless” during the trial, according to Hawaii News Now.
But Otake argued that Gupta, 30, was still breathing after Fleming released him and fell asleep:
“He starts snoring. They hear snoring,” attorney Thomas Otake said.
Otake said Fleming, an army veteran with war experience, learned to use the grip in the army to hold someone down, not kill them. He implied that Gupta’s choking was caused by something else.
“As Alex comes down and starts doing CPR… vomit comes out of Mr. Gupta. It will not be disputed that he vomited while lying on the ground,” Otake said.
Otake added that Gupta and Fleming were “closest friends”.
It was reported that Fleming called 911 after Gupta stopped breathing. Fleming was arrested and charged with manslaughter on March 30. An autopsy revealed that Gupta had died of strangulation.
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