Man Accused of Wife's Murder Breaks Down During Testimony

Last updated at 11:17 p.m. Thursday July 25.

The oldest daughter of an Iraqi man charged with fatally beating his wife in their El Cajon home testified Thursday that her father laughed at her mother when she showed him court papers to file for a divorce.

Kassim Alhimidi, 49, was arrested Nov. 8 by El Cajon police in what was first thought to be a hate crime. His wife, 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, was found mortally injured with at least six head wounds in their Skyview Street residence on March 21, 2012.

First responders found a note in the home that read, "This is my country, go back to yours, terrorist."

The couple's 18-year-old daughter, Fatima, testified that her parents started having problems in August 2011. She said her mother -- a homemaker -- wanted to divorce her father and move to Texas, where her family lived.

The daughter testified that her mother would get angry when her father wouldn't listen to her pleas for a divorce.

The witness said she was home on March 21, 2012, when she heard what she thought was a short "squeal" from her mother. She said she stayed in bed but eventually went to the kitchen to get something to eat, and saw her injured mother on the kitchen floor and called 911.

"I was in shock," the daughter testified. "I was so scared I couldn't even look at her."

The mother of five died of head injuries in a hospital three days later.

Alhimidi, who sold dates to grocery stores, sobbed in court as his daughter described finding her mother's body.

The young woman said a similar threatening note was found in the home on March 13, 2012, eight days before her mother was attacked.

From the outset of their investigation into the slaying, police said they considered ethnic animosity only one of the possible motives. Authorities eventually arrested Alhimidi and charged him with domestic-violence murder.

He and his wife left Iraq in 1991 to avoid running afoul of dictator Saddam Hussein.

At the conclusion of Alhimidi's preliminary hearing, which resumes tomorrow, Judge Lantz Lewis will decide if enough evidence was presented for the defendant to proceed to trial.

Alhimidi faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

-City News Service