A 27-year-old man charged with murdering his pregnant girlfriend chased her down and stabbed her repeatedly because the Westminster woman was trying to break up with him, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.
Ahmad Rashad Siddiqi’s attorney countered that his client was inflamed by the sudden news that the victim had been impregnated by another lover and was jilting him, making it a case of manslaughter, not murder.
Siddiqi, a resident of Alexandria, Virginia, at the time, is accused of killing 24-year-old Soraya Faroqi outside her apartment complex in the 15100 block of Brookhurst Street on the evening of Dec. 19, 2011.
“It is a simple case of, ‘If I can’t have you, then no one can,”‘ Senior Deputy District Attorney Keith Burke said in his opening statement.
Faroqi was several weeks into her pregnancy, but not enough so that it would be considered a fetus legally, so the defendant is charged with murder and attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation.
He also faces a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait, as well as a sentence- enhancing allegation of personal use of a deadly weapon.
Siddiqi and Faroqi, who both have Afghani roots, met in October 2010 while applying in Baltimore to be a translator for the military in Afghanistan. Neither one got the gig, but they “hit it off,” Burke said.
The two carried on a mostly long-distance relationship as Siddiqi stayed with his family in Virginia and Faroqi returned to Westminster, the prosecutor said.
In May 2011, the victim got a job as a translator in Afghanistan, Burke said. The two got engaged that September, but a month later, the victim began an affair with a U.S. Army private and then got pregnant, Burke said.
Faroqi concealed the affair from her fiancee, and though the two called off wedding plans, they decided to remain in a romantic relationship, Burke said. All the while, the victim pushed the defendant to “get it together” and find a job, the prosecutor said.
As the relationship continued to deteriorate, Siddiqi’s friends advised him to move on, but he instead bought a wedding ring just days before Faroqi returned home from Afghanistan in December 2011, Burke said.
A friend and neighbor of the victim arranged to have the estranged couple get together to talk on Dec. 19, 2011. When Faroqi broke the news of her affair and pregnancy, the defendant insisted he still wanted to work through it and stay together, Burke said.
Faroqi said she needed time to think things through since she had just confirmed the pregnancy that day, according to the prosecutor.
When the defendant insisted on fetching the wedding ring to show her, a knife that he had taken from a butcher block in the neighbor’s kitchen fell out of his jacket pocket, Burke said.
The neighbor picked up the knife and tried to keep Siddiqi from going back into the kitchen. But Siddiqi flung the woman aside and grabbed a bigger knife with an eight-inch blade and chased Faroqi out of the apartment toward a planter near a carport at the complex, where he stabbed her about 18 times, Burke alleged.
The commotion drew the attention of neighbors, who called police. The defendant ceased the attack when a man pointed a flashlight at him and told him to stop, Burke said.
Siddiqi was heard on the first arriving officer’s digital audio recorder making suicidal statements soon after his arrest, but Burke said the defendant never made any attempt to resist being taken into custody or did anything to risk his life.
While at a hospital to be treated for a cut on his hand, Siddiqi is heard saying, “I can’t say I’m sorry because does it look like I’m sorry? No, not at all. I did what I had to do, what I thought was right.”
Defense attorney Lisa Eyanson said her client was born in Afghanistan and emigrated to the U.S. when he was 12. After high school, Siddiqi enrolled in the Marines, where he served as an interpreter, Eyanson said.
The night before the killing, Siddiqi and Faroqi went to a local Walgreen’s drug store, where the victim bought a home pregnancy test, Eyanson said. When the defendant asked what it was for, Faroqi said it was for a friend, the attorney said.
When they met up again the next day, after the victim went to a doctor to confirm the pregnancy, the defendant “thinks they’re still together, trying to work it out,” Eyanson said.
Even when she tells him the bad news, “she’s not completely rejecting him,” Eyanson said.
But at some point, her client “just snaps,” she said.
Siddiqi has suffered from suicidal depression in the past and made an attempt on his life when his ex-wife broke it off, Eyanson said.
“At the end of the case, it is the mental state you’re going to have to decide,” Eyanson said. “Heat of passion is one of those things that can make murder into manslaughter.”
— City News Service