ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The wife of the 29-year-old store clerk shot and killed while handing over money during a broad daylight armed robbery on Tuesday said she died, too,
Malav Desai, who had moved from Jacksonville to St. Augustine only a month ago, died at the scene.
His wife, Aakanksha Desai, said she spoke to him on the phone just over an hour before he was killed. Her last words were, "I love you," and he replied, "I love you, too.":
"He was a wonderful human being," Aakanksha Desai said. "He taught me how to live; he taught me how to love. He taught me how to be nice and polite. He was a wonderful son. He was everything to his family, to his parents."
IMAGES: Remembering Malav Desai
UNCUT AUDIO: 911 calls report robbery, clerk shooting
The 15-year-old charged in the killing made his first appearance on a murder charge Friday morning. Police say Sergio Morgan-Wideman robbed the Tobacco & Beverage Express on Masters Drive in St. Augustine and fired the fatal shot.
Morgan-Wideman and a 16-year-old were arrested later Tuesday in Green Cove Springs after a high-speed chase through three counties.
Morgan-Wideman's parents were in the St. Johns County courtroom at Friday morning's hearing. The didn't want to do an interview and would only say he was "a good boy."
A judge ordered Morgan-Wideman returned to a juvenile facility in Volusia County for 21 days while the state attorney's office determines whether he will be tried as an adult for murder.
"I sincerely and strongly appeal to the honorable court to try them as adults," Aakanksha Desai said. "If someone wants to argue that they were teenagers or kids, or not in the right state of mind, how were they able to steal a car or possess a gun? And then, when they entered the store they, demanded everybody to get on the ground and ask money from the cash drawer from my husband? Which he willingly gave without argument or confrontation. I want to know why did they shoot him, execution style, when he gave them everything he had?"
The couple was from India and was enjoying their new life in America. Aakanksha Desai said her husband loved eating and cooking, the ocean, mountains, and camping and worked seven days a week. Over dinner the night before he was killed, they planned a vacation together in the Keys.
"I still can't believe he's gone.I can't believe he's never coming home. I can't believe he's never walking in from that door again," she said. "Nobody can ever take his place in my world or his family's world. He's gone. He's never coming back."
There is a vigil for Desai at 7 p.m. Friday outside the store where he died and his funeral service will be held at 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Johns Family Funeral Home and Crematory, 385 S.R. 207, St. Augustine.