Purdue student charged with murder in the brutal stabbing of his dorm roommate

Ji Min Sha, 22, is accused of killing Varun Manish Chheda, 20, who was found dead in their room last week with “multiple stab wounds and lacerations” to his head and neck.

Sha, a junior cybersecurity major and international student from South Korea, called 911 around 12:44 a.m. Oct. 5 to alert police about Chheda’s death.

Officers found Chheda, who was studying data science, in a chair in their first-floor room at McCutcheon Hall with “multiple stab wounds and lacerations” to his head and neck, according to a probable cause affidavit filed days after the killing.

There was “blood spatter on the wall, a pool of blood on the floor and a folding knife on the floor,” according to the document.

Sha admitted the knife belonged to him and confessed to the slaying to officers at the scene, according to the affidavit.

It is still unclear what motivated Sha to attack Chheda, authorities say. In an initial hearing last week, Sha told journalists “I was blackmailed” before he entered a courtroom at the Tippecanoe County Jail, where he was being held.

He also said he wanted the victim’s family to know that “I am very sorry.”

In Indiana, a murder conviction is punishable by the death penalty, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or 45 to 65 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Alex Martin / USA Today Network