The four men accused in the October 2019 murder of Tushar Atre in Santa Cruz are all facing trial or have already faced trial this year, six full years after the crime. And one of them is on trial this week, with further details emerging about what transpired between the suspects and the victim prior to the murder.

Four men are all standing trial separately for the October 1, 2019 murder of Tushar Atre: Stephen Lindsay, brothers Kurtis and Kaleb Charters, and Joshua Camps. The first to face trial back in January and February was Lindsay, and he was convicted in March of home-invasion robbery, kidnapping, and murder. Kurtis Charters had his trial last month, and he was convicted of the same charges. Both men were sentenced to life without parole.

Lindsay had been an employee of the victim, Atre, along with Kaleb Charters, at Atre's cannabis business and farm, called Interstitial Systems. As prosecutors have explained at trial, both men were accused by Atre of taking the keys to a farm vehicle, something that Atre responded to by stopping payment on two paychecks he had issued to them after they decided to stop working at the farm, causing the checks to bounce.

Atre then, allegedly, forced Kaleb Charters and Lindsay to do hundreds of pushups in front of other employees, telling them this was the price they had to pay to get their paychecks — this was after they had returned to the farm and located the missing keys.

As has previously been reported, Lindsay was the brother-in-law of the Charters brothers, having married their sister, and was something of the ringleader of their group. He was 22 at the time, as was Kurtis Charters, and younger brother Kaleb was 19. After feeling humiliated by Atre, and apparently knowing he kept large sums of cash at his Pleasure Point home, they hatched a plan to rob him.

Kaleb Charters was in charge of driving the suspects to the scene, and as KRON4 reports from the courtroom, his defense attorney argues that he had no idea there was any plan to harm or kill Atre, only a plan to rob him.

Their friend and accomplice, Joshua Camps, who was 23 at the time, allegedly confessed to Atre's murder in a jailhouse letter to Lindsay, though that letter did not come out at either Lindsay's or Kurtis Charters's trials.

Sam Borghese, a recent UC Santa Cruz graduate, was hired as Atre's right-hand-man at the cannabis business, and testified at Kaleb Charters's trial this week, per KRON4. He testified that Charters and Lindsay were hired to plant a large cannabis field in the Santa Cruz mountains in August 2019. Borghese reportedly testified that Atre was "pushed his employees very hard," yelled at them, and sometimes withheld paychecks as punishment.

Borghese also testified that other employees had joked about harming or robbing Atre behind his back, because of how they were treated. And when Lindsay contacted him and said he was thinking of robbing Atre, Borghese thought he was joking.

In one bit of testimony, Borghese told the court something that Atre had said to Charters in Lindsay, when he was yelling at them about wasting his time and making them do pushups. "Atre [said] he was worth thousands of dollars an hour — because he makes millions — so anyone who wastes his time is costing money,"Borghese said, per KRON4.

In addition to the cannabist business, Atre owned a successful web design firm.

According to Kaleb Charters's defense attorney Thomas “TJ” Brewer, "Kaleb never touched Tushar," and he said his client was only aware that there was a plan to rob Atre, nothing else.

Camps, who was allegedly recruited to help because he owned guns, appears to admit in the jailhouse letter that he took things into his own hands and stabbed Atre when he ran out of the house screaming — and, knowing Atre would likely bleed out, he allegedly confessed to shooting Atre in the head, saying, "I decided to show mercy and just end it fast. I told him I was sorry and that none of this was supposed to happen and then I ended it."

After Kaleb Charters drove off, meeting up with the other three at the cannabis farm, they drove Atre in his girlfriend's BMW to the woods near the farm, where his body was found.

Kaleb Charters is charged with robbery, burglary, kidnapping, and carjacking.

Lindsay has filed a habeas corpus petition based on the written confession of Camps.

Camps is still set to continue his trial after the trial of Kaleb Charters is complete.

Previously: Four Young Men Identified As Suspects Charged In Santa Cruz Kidnapping and Murder