A 44-year-old man cried openly in federal court on Thursday when He was charged in a fatal case of insurance fraud.
The defendant, Ali Elmezayen, said that he had raised his two children, who have autism, and his mother, in the Honda Civic of the family to observe the boats in the port of Los Angeles. Then, he drove the car to the water.
The sons, Elhassan, 13, and Abdelkrim, 8, were drowned.
The mother, Rehab Diab, whose marital relationship with Elmezayen is not clearly documented, He was drowning, but was rescued by some fishermen.
Diab is a key witness for the prosecutor's investigation.
Federal prosecutors allege that the action was a plan that took years.
Elmezayen, a low-income Egyptian immigrant, he paid $ 6,000 a year to insure his family, then raised $ 260,000.
Federal prosecutor Alexander Wyman told the jury that the defendant hit Diab and called her parents in Egypt, "threatening to send her home in a coffin," who was going to "bury her alive" and wanted to take a second wife.
Defense attorney Christine O’Connor said Elmezayen He bought the policies to protect his family, who had income "under the table" to pay the premiums.
Deflecting guilt, the defense told the jury to look at the wife's story. Undocumented, once he married a homeless man to obtain legal status, claiming that he abused her when advised that doing so would protect her from deportation.
About the accused, the defense says that it is not cunning, but "A crazy guy", "complicated", but not a monster.
Elmezayen faces a separate trial in the High Court for the murder of his children.
