A former field hand has been given a 40-year prison term for the second-degree murder of a pistachio farmer in Yolo County.

Bikkar "Vikey" Singh was sentenced in Yolo County Superior Court for the May 2006 shooting death of 64-year-old Gian Singh Heer, a longtime Yuba City resident. A jury on Dec. 14 convicted the 24-year-old Singh, also of Yuba City.

During sentencing Friday in Woodland, Judge David Rosenberg said Singh took Heer away from his family and away from his community. The India-born Heer, a father of five, had lived in Yuba City for 20 years and raised pistachios outside Woodland.

While Singh's imprisonment gives Heer's loved ones some peace, it cannot change the injustice of a man being denied the fruits of his hard work, said Tejinder Dosanjh, a family friend and director of the Tierra Buena Temple.

"He came to this country, had a big family, got his children a good education," Dosanjh said Monday. "Now he was at the time where he could enjoy life, but he's no longer around. That's the sad part."

Prosecutors said Singh shot Heer three times with Heer's own 12-gauge shotgun after the two argued. Friends and relatives of the victim have said the dispute stemmed from his firing Singh from his job as a farm laborer, reportedly because Singh had used vehicles from Heer's farm without permission.

Singh then took the keys to Heer's truck from the dead man's pocket, loaded the corpse in the back and dumped it in an irrigation ditch at the back of Heer's property, according to prosecutors.

Singh claimed he shot Heer in self-defense.

Heer was reported missing May 7, 2006. Yolo sheriff's deputies arrested Singh on suspicion of car theft on May 10, four days before detectives found Heer's body.

Contact Howard Yune at 749-4708 or hyune@appealdemocrat. com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.