A 28-year-old Alexandria inmate has been convicted of plotting to have a taxi driver killed to keep the cabbie from testifying in the inmate’s armed robbery trial. According to evidence presented during Mirwais Mohamadi’s trial, the Afghan-born man hired a prostitute on May 26, 2007, took her to nightclubs in the District and then robbed her at gunpoint. He then hailed a taxi in the Dupont Circle area and robbed the cab driver when they arrived at an apartment complex in the Landmark area of Alexandria. Mohamadi was later arrested for robbing the taxi driver. While he was waiting for that trial he solicited two inmates who were about to be released from the Fairfax County jail to kill the cab driver, the jury concluded. He offered them $4,000 and a position in his prostitution ring. When one of them took the bait, prosecutors say Mohamadi instructed him to put “one to chest, one to the head.” The jury convicted Mohamadi on armed robbery, witness tampering and solicitation to commit murder-for-hire charges. He faces more than 10 years in prison. “All of us in law enforcement take it personally when someone threatens to kills a witness so their crime can go unpunished,” said Rich Marianos, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
According to court documents, Mohamadi told the inmate-turned-hit man to disguise himself as a Pizza Hut or UPS delivery man, or a police detective and ask for the cabbie by name. He made sure the hit man knew how to pronounce the cabbie’s name to make sure he killed the right target, prosecutors said.
Mohamadi instructed how to shoot the cabbie, telling the hired gun to wrap a T-shirt around the weapon to catch the bullet casing. He warned the inmate to wipe his fingerprints off the shells ahead of time in case one dropped during the murder.
Afterward, the hit man was told to dispose of the gun by using cement to encase the gun inside a flower pot that he was to then drop in a lake or river.
Mohamadi paid for the hit in three cash installments he earned through his prostitution business, prosecutors said.
