Los Angeles, Dec. 16, 2024 -- The “execution-style” killing of Hamid Mirshojae was a murder-for-hire plot orchestrated by the doctor’s ex-wife, 53-year-old Ahang Kelk, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman. Five people have been arrested in connection with Mirshojae’s murder.
On Monday, Hochman said charges of murder and assault with a deadly weapon have been filed against Kelk, who is accused of hiring a hitman to kill her ex-husband in a financially motivated crime.
“The horror and betrayal of this crime are beyond words,” Hochman said in a statement released after the news conference. “The depth of the deceit and violence involved in this case is chilling, and we will not rest until justice is served.”
Kelk allegedly hired Evan Hardman, a 41-year-old resident of Tomball, Texas, to be the triggerman in her ex-husband’s slaying. Tomball was driven to and from the scene by 40-year-old Rose Sweeting of Reseda, Hochman added.
Hochman held a press conference to provide the latest on the investigation into the killing, which happened Aug. 23 as the 61-year-old was walking to his car in the parking lot outside of his clinic in Woodland Hills.
“The horror and betrayal of this crime are beyond words,” Hochman said in a statement released after the news conference. “The depth of the deceit and violence involved in this case is chilling, and we will not rest until justice is served.”
Ashley Sweeting, 40, of Reseda and Evan Hardman, 41, of Tomball, Texas. (LAPD)
Kelk allegedly hired Evan Hardman, a 41-year-old resident of Tomball, Texas, to be the triggerman in her ex-husband’s slaying. Tomball was driven to and from the scene by 40-year-old Rose Sweeting of Reseda, Hochman added.
Hardman and Sweeting were the first to be arrested in connection with the killing. Three others, including Kelk, Shawn Randolph, 46, from Valley Village and Sarallah Jawed, 26, from Canoga Park, were arrested in the days that followed with authorities describing them as a “local network of friends and acquaintances” of Kelk.
Both Jawed and Hardman face charges for murder and assault with a deadly weapon for their roles, which were also said to be financially motivated. Hochman said the two were previously hired by Kelk weeks prior to the murder to assault Mirshojae with a blunt object.
Sweeting faces charges for being an accessory to the killing and has pleaded not guilty. Randolph was not mentioned during Monday’s press conference or ensuing statement, but jail records indicate he remains in custody without bail.
Kelk pleaded not guilty to the charges at her arraignment, Hochman said. In August, she called any insinuation that she was involved in the crimes “all lies,” the L.A. Times reported.
Prosecutors are still awaiting the extradition of Hardman, who was arrested by local authorities in Texas.
THE LAW
CPC 187. (a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.
(b) This section shall not apply to any person who commits an act that results in the death of a fetus if any of the following apply:
(1) The act complied with the former Therapeutic Abortion Act (Article 2 (commencing with Section 123400) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code) or the Reproductive Privacy Act (Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 123460) of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of Division 106 of the Health and Safety Code).
(2) The act was committed by a holder of a physician’s and surgeon’s certificate, as defined in the Business and Professions Code, in a case where, to a medical certainty, the result of childbirth would be death of the person pregnant with the fetus or where the pregnant person’s death from childbirth, although not medically certain, would be substantially certain or more likely than not.
(3) It was an act or omission by the person pregnant with the fetus or was solicited, aided, abetted, or consented to by the person pregnant with the fetus.
(c) Subdivision (b) shall not be construed to prohibit the prosecution of any person under any other provision of law.
CPC 190.2. (a) The penalty for a defendant who is found guilty of murder in the first degree is death or imprisonment in the state prison for life without the possibility of parole if one or more of the following special circumstances has been found under Section 190.4 to be true:
(1) The murder was intentional and carried out for financial gain...
CASES OF NOTE
People v. Ervin, 22 Cal. 4th 48, 990 P.2d 506 (2000)
Main Legal Stances for California
Defendant was convicted in the Superior Court, Alameda County, Philip V. Sarkisian, J., of first degree murder, and was sentenced to death. Defendant appealed. The Supreme Court, Chin, J., held that:
(1) failing to sever prosecutions of defendant and his codefendant was not an abuse of discretion;
(2) trial court properly excluded prospective jurors who expressed a similar abstract inability to impose death on codefendant, as the hirer in a murder-for-hire scheme;
(3) defendant's failure to exhaust peremptory challenges barred his claim that his challenges for cause were improperly denied;
(4) prosecutor's stated reasons for exercising peremptory challenges against certain African-American prospective jurors were legally sufficient;
(5) evidence was sufficient to support conviction;
(6) sua sponte instructions on the actual effect of defendant's mental disease or disorder on his relevant mental state was unnecessary, disapproving People v. Aguilar, 218 Cal.App.3d 1556, 267 Cal.Rptr. 879 (1990) and People v. Leever, 173 Cal.App.3d 853, 219 Cal.Rptr. 581 (1985); and
(7) death penalty was not disproportionate to crime committed.
RESOURCES
For information on people who have been exonerated of capital crime visit the National Registry of Exonerations
For legal assistance contact Legal Services Corporation at lsc.gov.
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