MUSLIM MAN FOUND GUILTY IN BEATING DEATH OF A WIFE THAT HE TRIED TO STAGE AS A "ISLAMOPHOBIC" HATE CRIME (CALIFORNIA)

An Iraqi immigrant was convicted Thursday of bludgeoning his wife to death in a case that initially was considered a hate crime because a note found next to her body said: "This is my country, go back to yours, you terrorist."



Kassim Alhimidi, 49, shook his head from side to side and wagged a finger as jurors were polled, then chaos erupted in the courtroom when his oldest son stood and shouted obscenities. The son proclaimed his father's innocence before several deputies wrestled him out of the courtroom.



Alhimidi turned to the son and yelled in Arabic "God knows, and I attest to God, that I am not the killer. I am innocent."



Another son also shouted in his father's defense, while the victim's mother said Alhimidi deserved worse, according to the official court translator, Nahla David.



Superior Court Judge William McGrath and the jury cleared the courtroom during the outbursts. After a brief recess, the judge returned and scheduled sentencing for May 15.



Alhimidi faces a maximum sentence of life in prison for the murder of his 32-year-old wife, Shaima Alawadi, at their house in El Cajon, home to one of the largest enclaves of Iraqi immigrants in the U.S.



The jury deliberated less than two days before delivering a verdict that split the family. Alawadi's mother, Rehima Alhussanwi, said she was convinced Alhimidi was the killer.



"In Iraq, normally if he kills her he is supposed to be killed in the same way," she told reporters through David, the translator.



The eldest daughter, Fatima, declined to speak with reporters but her attorney, Ron Rockwell, said she felt "outraged and utterly betrayed" that the defense suggested during the trial that she may have been involved in the killing.



"Although we love our father, we also hate what we believe he did," Fatima said in a statement read by her attorney.



Alhimidi, who did not testify at trial, turned to one of his sons as he was escorted from the courtroom and asked that he seek international support to clear him of wrongdoing, according to the translator. "This was a hate crime," he said.


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