A Howard County Circuit Court judge sentenced an Ellicott City man to 30 years in prison for suffocating and choking his ex-wife so violently that she remains in a coma.
Judge Diane Leasure sentenced Ghafour Asemani on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder.
Asemani walked into Howard County police headquarters in Ellicott City on July 11, 2005, and told an officer, “I killed my wife.” He told police he and his ex-wife, Samira Salmassi, were involved in a domestic dispute, according to an agreed-upon statement of facts.
Police went to the apartment and found Salmassi unconscious.
During an argument in the bathroom, Asemani put his hands “various times over Samira?s mouth, nose and neck area,” according to the statement of facts.
As a result of her injuries, Salmassi has been in a “completely unresponsive and vegetative state,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors argued for a 30-year sentence, the maximum allowable by law, because they said Salmassi is alive in only the most technical sense, and Asemani essentially committed murder, T.Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for Howard County State?s Attorney Timothy McCrone said.
Asemani is eligible for parole in 15 years.
