Man involved in murder-for-hire plot against ex-wife sentenced to life behind bars

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A man found guilty in a murder-for-hire plot against his ex-wife was sentenced to life behind bars on Tuesday, September 19.

The sentencing for Hamid Ghassemi was announced after he was found guilty following a trial that lasted for several days in Baton Rouge.

Ghassemi was accused of hiring three people to kill his ex-wife, Taherah Ghassemi, in 2015. Her body was found in a wooded area of St. Helena Parish.

He faced a first-degree murder charge after being accused of hiring three men including Tyler Ashpaugh, Skylar Williams and Daniel Richter to carry out the alleged murder plot.

The trial got underway despite a last-minute effort by Ghassemi’s attorney to get the trial delayed. The attorney argued that they recently got a dozen boxes of documents and needed more time to go over them. A judge later determined there would not be a delay and that the trial would move forward as scheduled. Ghassemi went through a number of attorneys while preparing for the trial. He also represented himself legally at one point.

Ghassemi was arrested in 2015 after he allegedly paid $10,000 for the three men to kill his wife and son and also get rid of the bodies. The wife’s car was found torched and her body was discovered in a shallow grave in St. Helena Parish. The coroner’s office later confirmed she had been shot in the head.

Years later, Ghassemi remains the only person to face trial in the case. Ashpaugh died earlier this year in Angola and both Williams and Richter pleaded guilty to manslaughter and have been sentenced to 30 years each.

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