June 04, 2020 - 11:49 PM
CHESTERFIELD, Va. - A Pakistani national has been sentenced to 60 years in prison in a murder-for-hire plot in which a Virginia businessman was strangled with his own shoelaces.
Chaudhary Arshad Mahmood, 61, received his sentence in Chesterfield Circuit Court on Wednesday, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
He was convicted of first-degree murder and solicitation to commit murder in February for the 2015 killing of Adel M. Elmadany, news outlets said.
Prosecutors alleged Mahmood paid two men from Guatemala a total of $6,000 to carry out the plot because he believed Elmadany had helped shelter his wife while the couple was going through a divorce.
Mahmood also claimed that $70,000 in cash, 4 ounces (113 grams) in gold and important documents had gone missing from him and suggested the items may have ended up with Elmadany’s wife, according to prosecutors.
Mahmood maintained his innocence during the trial and claimed he only hired the co-defendants to negotiate for the return of his property, and that the men acted on their own when they killed Elmadany in his auto sales business, The Times-Dispatch reported.
Mahmood fled to Pakistan while he was being investigated and was arrested by local and federal agents in 2019 upon his return to Virginia, authorities said.
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This story corrects the spelling of “Pakistani.”
News from © The Associated Press, 2020