by STAFF WRITER
LOS ANGELES, Nov 23, CMC – An Antigua-based businessman, who was extradited from the island in 2015, has been found guilty of murdering his first wife more than two decades ago.
Morrad Ghonim
Morrad Ghonim, who has since married Dominican beauty queen, Nadira Lando, in 2014, will return to court on December 19 for sentencing.
He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement in the murder of his first wife, Vicki, who was shot several times in the head in a parking lot.
Ghonim was found guilty of first-degree murder on Monday after he was charged with the 1992 murder of his first wife in the Los Angeles area.
He was deported from Antigua in 2015 where he operated a beauty store, two months after a jury in the US convicted 42-year-old Leon Martinez as being the hit man in the murder. He was reportedly paid US$500 to commit the crime.
Prosecutors successfully argued that Ghonim was the one who hatched the plan to kill his wife.
Ghonim and Martinez were both arrested in 2010, but the case against Ghonim was dropped because of a lack of evidence at that time.
Three months later, the Jordanian born Ghonim left the US to live in Antigua. But the criminal case against Martinez proceeded, and in 2012 he confessed that Ghonim was involved in the matter.
Meanwhile, Ghonim had apparently thrived in the eastern Caribbean.
Officials say he started a company, Ayoushe Beauty Supplies, which is how he met his new wife, a Dominican beauty queen. The company was successful enough that in 2012, he sponsored a local beauty pageant, according to the government’s official website.
Prosecutors say the Ghonims were having marital problems at the time, and Morrad paid Martinez $500 to stage a robbery and kill Vicki.
