Margate man convicted in murder-for-hire plot that killed aircraft mechanic Suren Seetal; co-conspirator gets life

A federal jury in Miami has convicted Avin Seetaram, 27, of Margate, in the murder-for-hire plot that killed aircraft mechanic Suren Seetal in November 2023, and his co-conspirator, Somjeet Christopher Singh, 32, of Coral Springs, has been sentenced to life in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida announced Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. Prosecutors said the killing grew out of a roughly $315,000 debt that Singh owed Seetal from a fireworks business, and that Seetal's body was dumped in the Everglades.

Seetaram, also known as "Smalls," was convicted at trial on Aug. 21, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 20. He faces up to life in prison. A third man, accused gunman Gavin Hunter, has not yet gone to trial and is presumed innocent.

The verdict

The jury found Seetaram guilty of six federal crimes, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office:

• Murder-for-hire conspiracy
• Murder for hire
• Stalking resulting in death
• Discharging a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence
• Conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during a crime of violence
• Causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm during a crime of violence

The firearm conspiracy count carries a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. Each of the other counts carries up to life, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones described the case in stark terms. "This was not a spontaneous act of violence. It was a deliberate, persistent, and cold-blooded murder-for-hire scheme," he said in the office's news release. He added that the defendants tracked Seetal, sent armed men to kill him, tried again after the first attempt failed, then paid the gunman and helped dispose of the body in the Everglades.

A fireworks debt and a mechanic who wanted to be paid

Seetal, 36, of Miami, worked as an aircraft mechanic, including at Opa-locka Executive Airport, according to news reports. Outside their day jobs, prosecutors said, he and Singh were both in the business of buying and selling fireworks. Singh, who also owned an HVAC business, came to owe Seetal about $315,000 in connection with that trade, and Seetal had begun trying to collect his debts, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which cited Seetal's girlfriend.

According to prosecutors, Singh turned to Seetaram to arrange a killing. Local 10 News, citing court records, reported that Singh gave Seetaram $5,000 in cash and forgave $10,000 of a debt Seetaram owed him in exchange for hiring a hitman. Seetaram in turn paid Hunter, then 18, $5,000 to carry out the killing, authorities have alleged.

Two attempts on Seetal's life

The plot began months before Seetal died. In July 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the conspirators tracked Seetal's movements through an electronic device placed in the vehicle he was using and sent a gunman and a driver to kill him outside his home. Seetal and the gunman exchanged fire, and no one was struck.

After that attempt failed, Seetaram and Singh arranged a second plan, prosecutors said. On Nov. 2, 2023, they lured Seetal to a business location where a newly hired gunman was waiting, and the gunman ambushed him and shot him to death, according to the government. Local 10 reported that court documents identified the location as an HVAC warehouse on Northwest 15th Street in Margate, and that Seetaram drew Seetal there with a text message about a key in a drawer. Prosecutors allege Hunter was the gunman.

Seetal's family reported him missing on Nov. 4, 2023, after he did not return from work, according to the Sun Sentinel.

A body in the Everglades

The conspirators then paid the gunman and worked to hide the crime, including transporting Seetal's body and disposing of it in the Everglades, prosecutors said. Security footage showed Seetaram and Singh buying a 96-gallon yard waste cart at a Home Depot shortly after the killing, according to an affidavit cited by NBC 6. Cellphone and toll records placed Singh's work van along Alligator Alley and Snake Road on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in western Broward County, Local 10 reported.

Seetal's decomposed remains were found on the reservation later in November 2023, with a gunshot wound to the head, according to news reports. Federal charges followed in December 2023, when a grand jury indicted Singh, Seetaram and Hunter.

The case stretched across South Florida, from the airport where Seetal worked in Miami-Dade County to a Margate warehouse in Broward County and the Big Cypress reservation on the county's remote western edge.

Singh's life sentence and the other defendants

Singh did not go to trial. He pleaded guilty to eight counts: murder-for-hire conspiracy, murder for hire, kidnapping conspiracy, kidnapping, stalking resulting in death, firearm conspiracy, causing a person's death through the use of a firearm during a crime of violence, and obstruction of justice, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman sentenced Singh to concurrent life terms on six counts, plus 140 months on the firearm conspiracy count and 120 months on the obstruction count, prosecutors said.

The case has grown beyond the original three defendants. The status of everyone charged, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Sun Sentinel and Local 10, is below:

Ramanan and Jarrett were added in a superseding indictment filed in 2025 on stalking and related charges tied to the July 2023 incident, according to the Sun Sentinel. Hunter and Jarrett have not been convicted and are presumed innocent.

What's next

Seetaram is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 20 before the federal court in Miami, where he faces up to life in prison. Hunter's trial is set to begin Jan. 4, according to federal court records cited by Local 10, though trial dates in federal cases often shift. Jarrett's case also remains pending.

The FBI's Miami field office also publicized the verdict and Singh's sentence, and the case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida.