A father was charged on July 17 with capital murder for the murder of his two severely autistic sons. They died four years ago as a result of him driving off his car into a pier in a Los Angeles area, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Ali Elmezayen, 44, was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder with the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders carried out for financial gain.
He is presently in federal custody on charges of insurance fraud. Once the fraud case is completed, he will be tried on the murder charges.
According to KTLA, prosecutors have not stated if they will seek the death penalty for Elmezayen on this case.
Dad murdered autistic sons by driving off pier: prosecutors https://t.co/SSJr3RZNtl pic.twitter.com/y3IJVebqgQ
— New York Post (@nypost) July 18, 2019
Elmezayen was driving his car with the two boys and his wife in San Pedro on April 9, 2015, when he drove the car off into the water. Both the kids, Abdelkarim, 8, and Elhassan, 13, weren’t able to swim and were strapped in child seats, reported the Desert Sun.
The boy’s bodies were recovered by divers, but he and his wife survived. He said that he swam out his open window.
His wife didn’t know how to swim but survived thanks to a fisherman that threw a floater to her. She was reportedly screaming “My kids, my kids.”
He allegedly paid more than $6,000 a year for the policies, despite the fact that he made less than $30,000 per year, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
A man was charged with murder after prosecutors say he drove his family off a Los Angeles pier, killing his two severely autistic sons: https://t.co/FKXChEPNMj pic.twitter.com/iSW2PdB1OZ
— 48 Hours (@48hours) July 18, 2019
He had called two of the insurance companies to affirm that if he made claims two years after the policies were purchased, these would not be investigated.
The children drowned in the car two years and 12 days later after he bought the last policy.
Elmezayen got more than $260,000 from insurance proceeds, according to the U.S. attorney’s office, reported NBC.
According to the attorney’s office, he pretended to be his wife for some of the communications with the insurance companies. He is charged with wiring more than $170,000 of the money from the insurance proceeds to Egypt, where he is originally from.
Father Charged with Murder 4 Years After He Drove Off Pier with His 2 Autistic Sons in the Car
A father has been charged … pic.twitter.com/Xp5N5eFAaQ— GoCeeps (@GoCeeps) July 18, 2019
One day after the event, he told KTLA in an interview where he didn’t want to show his face that the crash was a “really bad accident,” and that he was trying to park at the Berth so that they could watch the upcoming view of the sunset.
Elmezayen said that when he tried to park, the car “didn’t stop.” He said, “I don’t know how this happened.”
Father charged with murder for driving autistic sons off L.A. pier https://t.co/upGfeM2jiF pic.twitter.com/oJNAVeC4XN
— NBC Connecticut (@NBCConnecticut) July 18, 2019
“When I woke up, I see water everywhere,” Elmezayen told KTLA, “I don’t know how I stayed alive.”
“I want to go back to my kids but the car (went) really deep,” he said.
“As it settled … to the bottom … it disturbs all the silt so the visibility is very difficult,” LAFD Deputy Chief Daren Palacios said at a news conference in April 2015. “They had a very hard time extricating the second patient out.”
