El Cajon, California — On Nov. 9 Kassim Alhimidi, 48, was arrested and booked on one count of murder in connection to the gruesome death of his wife Shaima Alawadi, a former Dearborn woman who was once a worshiper at the  Karbala Center on Warren Avenue when she was younger. Since then he has plead not guilty. 

The victim’s father was a former cleric at the Center according to Imam Husham Al-Husainy who’s currently a religious leader at the mosque. 

Alawadi, 32, of El Cajon, California was found brutally beaten in her home Mar. 21, then sent to a hospital where she died. Days leading up to the beating Alawadi received a threatening note. When her body was found in the home a similar note appeared near it calling her a terrorist and telling her to go back to her country. Alawadi wore the traditional Islamic headscarf, and is Iraqi.

Alawadi

Her case gained international attention after her death was deemed a hate crime that occurred as a result of her ethnicity. In a sign of how closely the case was being watched the U.S. State Department expressed condolences for her death, and Iraqi government officials attended her funeral in Iraq. 

Funeral services for her were held at the Karbala Center in Dearborn where family members of the woman were spotted weeping. A rally also took place outside of Dearborn City Hall to express solidarity with the family. 

Al-Husainy remembers meeting the victim when her family first emigrated to Dearborn in 1993. He says his daughters were friends with her. In an interview with The Arab American News months ago he described the victim’s family as conservative and peaceful.  

According to a report during a news conference the Cajon Police Chief Jim Redman said after months of hard work, the department had determined the homicide was the result of domestic violence and not a hate crime. 

San Diego County Jail records show that Alhimidi, was arrested for first degree murder, and was being held without bail. According to a search warrant affidavit filed in April, a relative of Alawadi told detectives that she had been planning on divorcing her husband and moving to Texas. The divorce papers were found in her car.  

El Cajon is home to the second largest Iraqi community in the country, behind Detroit.