SAN JOSE, Calif. – On Friday, prosecutors charged 22-year-old Hasib bin Golamrabbi and his younger brother, 17-year-old Omar Golamrabbi, each with two counts of homicide for the murder of their parents, Golam, 59, and Shamima Rabbi, 57. The couple’s bodies were found in their San Jose home last Sunday, which had been vandalized and covered with cryptic notes. Scrawled all over the walls in black ink were messages including, “Sorry, my first kill was clumsy” and “Take care of your brother, or he’s next.”
According to police, Hasib allegedly shot Golam, his father, more than a dozen times before shooting his mother one time in the head. The brothers appeared in court Friday, where they both pleaded not guilty. Hasib wore a yellow jumpsuit, which the Mercury News reported is traditionally worn by inmates in the psychiatric ward.
According to police documents, while the brothers both admitted to being at the scene, they offered conflicting accounts. Hasib allegedly admitted to killing his father in the family’s garage, but he claims a “stranger” at the house, who he couldn’t identify, commanded him to do so. He then allegedly said he did not kill his mother. Omar, on the other hand, said he was home when Hasib killed Golam and that there were no other intruders, the Mercury News reported.
LOS ANGELES – The “Grim Sleeper” trial was nearly over Monday after months of testimony about a serial killer targeting black women during the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic on the south side of Los Angeles.
Lonnie Franklin Jr., 63, faces the death penalty if convicted of killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007. All were shot or strangled, and their bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins.
Perhaps the most riveting witness against Franklin is the only woman known to have survived the serial killings. She described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted in 1988. Then, she noticed her attacker taking a Polaroid picture of her before pushing her out of his car.
When Franklin was finally arrested 22 years later, the same photograph – showing the wounded woman slouched over in a car – was one of many pictures found in his possession, prosecutors said.
The closing arguments began with prosecutors after the judge delivered jury instructions on Monday. The process could last two days.
BAGHDAD – For some it was their first glimpse of the center of their capital, and on Sunday a 24-hour sit in inside Baghdad’s Green Zone by protesters demanding reform turned into something of a sightseeing tour.
The four-mile-square fortified area, home to ministries, government buildings and embassies, has been closed to the public since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. In it are some of the city’s most iconic landmarks, surrounded by manicured lawns and gardens.
After supporters of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr breached its boundaries by bursting into parliament on Saturday, Iraqis were allowed to mill in and out on Sunday without having the normally required passes.
They stopped to snap selfies under the giant crossed swords that form the Hands of Victory monument, built by Saddam Hussein in commemoration of the Iran-Iraq war.
Associated Press & Washington Post
