A former airport worker in California was convicted this week of murdering his co-worker's boyfriend after the woman rejected his advances to start a relationship, authorities said.
On Friday, a jury found Kevin Prasad, 37, guilty on all counts, including first-degree murder, lying in wait and firing into an occupied vehicle in the 2018 killing of 31-year-old Mark Mangaccat, the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office announced in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter.)
According to past reporting by PEOPLE, Prasad and Thandar Seinn had worked together at the San Francisco International Airport for several years. At some point, prosecutors say, Prasad began asking Seinn out, but she repeatedly rebuffed his advances.
San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told reporters at the time that Prasad and Mangaccat “had never had a conflict, never had any fight, battles or anything like that,” according to ABC7. “He just happened to be the boyfriend of the woman he wanted in his life.”
On April 25 2018, Mangaccat went to the airport to pick up Seinn, who had worked her last shift as a security officer. CBS San Francisco reported that the couple planned to move to Las Vegas with their 3-year-old daughter.
In a desperate attempt to keep Seinn from moving, Prasad allegedly decided to take violent action, D.A. Wagstaffe previously told the Daily Journal.
That day, Prasad and an alleged accomplice, Donavan Rivera, followed Seinn and Mangaccat to their home in Daly City, according to a police report previously obtained by The Washington Post. Authorities allege that Mangaccat was backing his car into the garage with Seinn in the passenger seat when Prasad walked up and fired five to six shots into the vehicle, killing Mangaccat. Seinn was not struck by any of the bullets.
Seinn initially had no idea who killed her boyfriend, but soon told homicide detectives about a co-worker who had, what she thought at the time, was an innocent crush on her, according to past reporting by PEOPLE.
“Almost as an afterthought [Seinn] said, ‘There is a fellow at work who has had an interest in me, but he would never do that,’ ” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe told PEOPLE in 2019. “It really flowed from the fact that, well, there is this guy at work and that’s what led to these guys.”
Authorities arrested and charged Prasad, a then-security officer at SFO, and his accused getaway driver Rivera, the following day. It’s unclear if Rivera has since entered a plea to a first-degree murder charge.
Seinn previously told PEOPLE she thinks about Mangaccat every day and wished things turned out differently.
“I wish it could be a bad dream,” she said in 2019. “But it’s not. I am empty. I only think of Mark. He should be here. It is a killing for nothing. There was no reason.”
According to The Mercury News and SF Gate, Prasad’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 17.
Under California law, those convicted of first-degree murder face 25 years to life in state prison.
