Murdered CEO ‘humiliated’ his alleged killers by making them do pushups for paychecks before he was stabbed and shot multiple times in jaw and head

A California cannabis worker took the stand last week, testifying about the violent 2019 death of marijuana and tech entrepreneur Tushar Atre—a killing prosecutors say stemmed from a botched robbery.

Kaleb Charters, 25, is one of four men accused in the case. On Wednesday, he told jurors that Atre, a multimillionaire CEO, fostered a harsh and demeaning work environment that sometimes included forcing employees to do pushups to receive their paychecks.

“You guys are in the Army. Do 500 pushups,” Charters recalled Atre telling him, according to KRON-TV. Charters, a former National Guard member, said Atre became furious after he and his brother-in-law, Stephen Lindsay, lost the keys to a company vehicle known as the “Monster Truck.”

Two months later, prosecutors say, Atre was kidnapped from his Santa Cruz County home, robbed, and then stabbed and shot to death.

“Tushar was flipping out,” Charters testified, describing how he and Lindsay had recently finished planting hundreds of cannabis plants in the Santa Cruz Mountains while working long days for $200 daily. He claimed Atre threatened to cancel their paychecks over the lost keys.

Multiple witnesses have described Atre as a demanding and often abusive employer. Employees told investigators he frequently yelled, withheld or bounced paychecks, and humiliated staff publicly. “They were humiliated in front of people,” Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Detective Ethan Rumrill testified in late October.

Another worker, Sam Borghese, said Atre “pushed his employees very hard.” When asked whether Atre used fear to motivate his staff, Borghese replied, “Yes.”

Prosecutors say Charters, Lindsay, Charters’ brother Kurtis, and their friend Joshua Camps plotted to rob Atre of $1 million they believed he kept at his home. Atre’s body was later discovered at one of his nearby cannabis properties.

In a video shown in court, Camps allegedly confessed to police that he and the others zip-tied Atre’s hands and gagged him before the fatal attack. “I told him no one wants to hurt you, we are just here for your stuff,” Camps said in the recording. “He didn’t know what was going on… He was covered in blood. He was saying, ‘Please let me go.’”

Camps allegedly admitted to stabbing Atre in the neck after he tried to escape, then shooting him with an AR-15 rifle “to put him out of his misery,” according to police.

“He wasn’t going to last much longer,” Camps said in the video. “I knew he was going to die.”

Camps remains in custody and faces multiple charges, including carjacking and murder. His next court appearance is scheduled for November 12. Charters, who faces charges of kidnapping, robbery, burglary, carjacking, and first-degree murder, appeared in court November 7.

Lindsay and Kurtis Charters were both convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

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