California woman Shaima Alawadi wasn’t killed in a hate crime after all. Unless any man

who kills his wife is guilty of a hate crime. He was convicted recently of killing her two years ago and leaving a note implying it was a hate crime against them as Iraqis. Seven months later, his daughter turned him in.

http://www.10news.com/news/kassim-alhimidi-found-guilty-in-beating-death-of-wife-shaima-alawadi-041714

EL CAJON, Calif. - An Iraqi immigrant was convicted Thursday of beating his wife to death in their El Cajon home after she asked for a divorce.



Jurors deliberated about a day and a half before finding Kassim Alhimidi, 49, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, a mother of five.



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Alhimidi said he was out for a drive when his wife was killed the morning of March 21, 2012, but surveillance video taken from a nearby school showed his van in the area of the family home on Skyview Drive around the time the victim was attacked, Mechals said. A neighbor testified that he saw a dark-clothed person come from the backyard of the home around the time of the murder carrying a cardboard box.




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2607336/Iraqi-man-guilty-beating-wife-death-trying-stage-HATE-CRIME-home-terrorist-note.html

Mechals told jurors that local and federal police initially investigated the bludgeoning as a hate crime after a note was found near the body that read: 'This is my country, go back to yours, you terrorist.'

However, street camera footage and information from the couple's eldest daughter about her parents' troubled marriage led police to charge Alhimidi.

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An uncle of the children who was present told authorities that Alhimidi then turned to him and said that if his wife woke up, she might try to say that he had attacked her.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Apr/15/lawyers-argue-husband-murder-jury/

“Shaima was taken by surprise by someone she knew,” Deputy District Attorney Kurt Mechals said in Superior Court, noting that the 32-year-old mother of five, a strict Muslim, was not wearing her hijab (head scarf) when she was attacked.

“She would not invite someone in,” Mechals said. “That is not reasonable.”

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The prosecutor said Alhimidi’s marriage was in trouble and that his wife made it no secret that she wanted a divorce. He read messages the wife sent via computer to other relatives, saying “I do not love him” and “I cannot stand him.”

http://www.cbs8.com/story/25276375/live-stream-130pm-verdict-in-hate-crime-murder-case

Police questioned the defendant for more than seven months before getting an unsolicited call in November 2012 from Fatima saying "My dad did it." Alhimidi was arrested the next day.