A man pleaded guilty Friday to fatally stabbing a 63-year-old acquaintance outside a Hemet business in 2019.
Hyder Mahdi Jaffer, 52, of Hemet was convicted of the Dec. 30, 2019 slaying of Inder Jit of Winchester.
Along with the murder count, he faced a sentence-enhancing allegation of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felony.
During a felony settlement conference at the Banning Justice Center on Friday, Jaffer pleaded guilty to the murder charge and had the sentence-enhancing allegation dropped.
Jaffer was being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to Hemet police Lt. Jeff Davis, there was an unspecified confrontation between Jaffer and Jit as the latter sat in his vehicle in front of a business in the 1300 block of East Oakland Avenue, near San Jacinto Avenue.
The conflict culminated in Jaffer stabbing the victim in the chest, investigators said. Jit was discovered by passersby, who called 911. Patrol officers and paramedics arrived within a few minutes, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jaffer was immediately identified as a person of interest and detectives spoke to him soon after the stabbing. However, he was not immediately arrested.
Davis said the investigative team ultimately gathered sufficient evidence to submit a request for charges to the District Attorney’s Office, and a criminal complaint was filed on Feb. 18, 2020, after which Jaffer was taken into custody.
A possible motive was not disclosed, nor were any details about the relationship between the two men, other than that they knew one another.
Jaffer has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions in Riverside County.