SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KRON) — A judge sentenced a convicted murderer on Monday for kidnapping a wealthy tech executive, Tushar Atre, from his Pleasure Point home and shooting the victim execution-style in the Santa Cruz Mountains seven years ago.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Stephen Siegel sentenced Joshua Camps, 29, to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Siegel asked, “Mr. Camps, is there anything you’d like to say?”
Camps stared straight ahead, showed little emotion, and declined to make a statement. His defense attorney answered, “He has a lot of things he would like to say. I’ve advised him not to do that.”
In the high-profile case, Camps was the fourth and final defendant to be sentenced. His three co-conspirators — Kaleb Charters, Stephen Nicholas “Nick” Lindsay, and Kurtis Charters — were found guilty of first-degree murder in separate trials last year, and they have already began serving life sentences.
Stephen Nicholas Lindsay, left, and Joshua Camps, right, are seen in mugshots released by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office in 2020.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, Atre’s sister stood up in the courtroom and said, “Now the murderers’ hell really begins, for the rest of their lives.” She described the group of young men as a “gang” of “hateful and greedy” killers. The sister said her brother was shot with an AR-15 rifle “to the point of being unrecognizable.”
Atre, 50, was a former San Francisco resident who moved to Santa Cruz because he loved surfing and mountain biking. He was the CEO of AtreNet, a web design firm.
On October 1, 2019 at 3 a.m., Atre was sleeping in his Pleasure Point beach house when three men broke in, tied him up at gunpoint, and stole thousands of dollars from a safe. The home invaders were identified by prosecutors as Camps, Lindsay, and Kurtis Charters.
Prosecutors said Camps was the gunman who pulled the trigger.
Defense attorneys described the incident as a burglary that spiraled into chaos, and killing Atre was not part of the group’s original plan.
Atre bolted down the street screaming and “ran for his life” before the group forced him into an SUV and drove into the mountains, where he was shot, Assistant District Attorney Michael Mckinney said.
Camps wrote a letter from jail to a friend whom was instructed to destroy it after reading. In the letter he wrote, “I’m not an evil murderer. I wasn’t planning on shooting anyone. I was like okay, even if we got caught, 4 years max.”
Court records contain this confession letter allegedly written by Joshua Camps. (KRON4 Image)
The letter continues, “Sh** went really bad. The guy took off running, Nick chased then tackled. I stabbed him. We got him in the car and took off. We got to the spot. The guy was messed up and bleeding out. I told him I was sorry and that none of this was supposed to happen and then I ended it.”
Prosecutors described the crime as a cold and calculated murder plot motivated by envy of the millionaire’s wealth, humiliation at work, and revenge.
Tushar Atre / (Photo courtesy Robert Blumberg)
Kaleb Charters and Lindsay had previously worked for Atre at his cannabis farm in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Before they received their first and only paycheck, their boss ordered the duo to perform 500 pushups as punishment for losing a set of keys, according to testimony. An ex-employee testified that Atre was a harsh boss, and employees were so disgruntled that they often “joked” behind his back about robbing or hurting him.
Kaleb Charters and Kurtis Charters are brothers, and Lindsay is married to their sister. Prosecutors said Camps was a “wannabe cop with a gun fetish” who was recruited into the plot by Kurtis Charters.
Camps made a chilling confession to detectives inside an interrogation room on May 19, 2020. He told detectives that after he stabbed and kidnapped Atre, he decided to shoot the victim in the head so he would die faster. Camps had never met the victim and didn’t even know his name, according to the confession tape.
In court Monday, prosecutors played a slideshow of photographs showing Atre surfing big waves, playing his guitar, and smiling at gatherings with friends and family.
Santa Cruz surfers who became close friends with Atre read victim impact statements. One surfer, Randy Garrett, described the victim as someone who was kind and encouraging to everyone catching waves at Pleasure Point. “He was as authentic as they come. Tushar, I miss you. Thank you for showing us how to love every minute of life,” Garrett said.
Tushar Atre, right, lived and surfed at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz.
Another friend said Atre taught his daughter how to surf and “how to fall and get back up. He taught courage in the water.” The friend said, “Tushar should still be here … living the life that was taken from him.”
Judge Siegel said, “This was a terrible tragedy on all sides. It’s something that never should have happened.”
Camps was immediately remanded into the custody of state prison authorities to begin serving his life sentence.