SANTA CRUZ, CA – Nearly six years have passed since Tushar Atre, a local tech executive and cannabis entrepreneur, was snatched from his upscale Pleasure Point home and murdered in the Santa Cruz mountains—a crime that shattered his community and set off a multiyear investigation and complex prosecution. This week, with another defendant on trial, the courtroom is once again confronting the chain of events that led to Atre’s violent death.
The four men accused in the October 2019 killing—Stephen Lindsay, brothers Kurtis and Kaleb Charters, and their associate Joshua Camps—are all facing separate trials. The case has exposed a tangled web of workplace grievances, simmering resentment, and a plot that spiraled into deadly violence.
Lindsay, who once worked at Atre’s cannabis business, Interstitial Systems, alongside Kaleb Charters, was the first to face judgment. After a two-month trial earlier this year, he was found guilty of home-invasion robbery, kidnapping, and murder. The jury’s verdict sent him to prison for life without parole. Last month, Kurtis Charters stood trial for the same charges, receiving an identical sentence.
Testimony during the trials revealed that tensions between Atre and some of his employees had boiled over months before the fatal night. Prosecutors described a situation in which Atre suspected Lindsay and Kaleb Charters of stealing the keys to a company vehicle—a dispute that ended with Atre cancelling their paychecks and demanding the men perform hundreds of pushups in front of their coworkers as punishment. The humiliation, prosecutors say, was a turning point.
Those disciplinary tactics, and Atre’s strict approach to management, reportedly became the talk of the workplace. According to witnesses, including recent UC Santa Cruz graduate Sam Borghese, Atre pushed his team hard, sometimes withholding pay as a form of discipline and frequently raising his voice over perceived slights or wasted time. Behind Atre’s back, some employees joked about getting revenge or robbing him.
Investigators allege that Lindsay, nursing a grudge alongside the Charters brothers, began to hatch a plan to rob the man they believed kept cash at home. Lindsay, who had recently married into the Charters family, quickly emerged as the group’s leader. Kaleb Charters, then just 19, drove the group to Atre’s house on the night of the attack, while Joshua Camps—known to possess firearms—was allegedly recruited for extra muscle.
Defense attorneys insist that Kaleb Charters had only agreed to participate in a robbery, not a killing. They claim he had no knowledge that Atre’s life would be threatened, describing his role as chauffeur rather than an active participant in violence.
New details presented in court include the contents of a jailhouse letter written by Camps to Lindsay, which allegedly contains a confession to the murder. In the letter, Camps indicates he took the situation into his own hands, stabbing Atre when he tried to flee, then ultimately shooting him in what he described as an act of mercy.
Prosecutors say that after abducting Atre from his home, the suspects drove him to the remote cannabis farm where they had once worked. It was in the woods near this property that Atre’s body was discovered.
Kaleb Charters now faces charges including robbery, kidnapping, burglary, and carjacking. His defense hinges on whether the jury believes his involvement stopped short of murder.
Meanwhile, Lindsay continues to appeal his conviction, citing the alleged jailhouse confession as new evidence. Joshua Camps is awaiting his own day in court, set to face trial once Charters’ proceedings conclude.
For Atre’s loved ones and the Santa Cruz community, each chapter in the legal saga brings new revelations—but none have lessened the shock of a murder that began with workplace grievances and ended in a remote mountain clearing.