Judge orders murder trial following witnesses' accounts of Chino Hills slaying

CHINO - A judge ruled this afternoon that a Chino Hills man must stand trial for murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of his wife.

The ruling by Judge Gerard S. Brown came at the end of a five-hour preliminary hearing in Chino Superior Court in which several witnesses detailed Samir Wahid's alleged slaying of his wife - 33-year-old Iman Wahid - on May 25, 2010.

Samir Wahid, 40, is accused of stabbing his wife to death in the street near the couple's home in the 500 block of Stone Ridge Drive.

The couple was divorcing, and Samir Wahid was reportedly upset over the size of support payments he was ordered to make to his wife and three children.

According to people who witnessed the killing, Samir Wahid voiced complaints about money and other issues as he repeatedly stabbed his wife.

"This is what you get for (messing) around with three other boyfriends," Samir Wahid said during the attack, according to testimony from Luis Castaneda, a painter who was working at a nearby house in the 15800 block of Sedona Drive.

Castaneda estimated that Samir Wahid stabbed his wife as many as 20 times, stopping only after he appeared tired from the prolonged attack. He then laid down in the street and waited for authorities to arrive.

Paramedics pronounced Iman Wahid dead at the scene.

In the hours after the killing, Samir Wahid confessed to several deputies and detectives from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing.

"Obviously I did murder my wife," he said in a recorded interview played aloud in court. "There's no ifs, ands or buts about it."

Besides finding sufficient evidence for Samir Wahid to stand trial, Brown also kept in place two "special circumstance" allegations that could significantly lengthen Wahid's prison sentence.

If found true by a jury, the allegations - that Samir Wahid committed the killing for financial gain, and lay in wait before the slaying - could lead to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. He would be eligible for parole at about age 65 if convicted of first-degree murder without "special circumstances."

Samir Wahid remains jailed without bail and is next due in court March 30.

In December 2009, Iman Wahid asked her husband to move out of the family's home. Iman Wahid filed for divorce in April 2010, and soon after Samir Wahid was ordered to make monthly child and spousal support payments.

The day before Iman Wahid's death, those payments were raised from $8,000 a month to $13,000 a month, according to testimony today from Iman Wahid's former divorce attorney.

Samir Wahid, who co-owns a successful air-conditioning installation business, was also asked to make lump payments totaling $70,000 for costs related to the divorce proceedings, the attorney testified.

The morning of Iman Wahid's killing, Samir Wahid borrowed a car from one of his employees and parked near his family's home. Prosecutors believe he waited inside and ambushed his wife when she returned home holding grocery bags.

At about 1 p.m., several of the couple's neighbors said they heard Iman Wahid screaming and saw her running down the street away from her home.

Phillip Jackson, who lived across the street from the couple, said he saw Samir Wahid chase his wife in an SUV before catching up and resuming his attack.

"She just kept saying, 'Get away from me. Get away from me,'" Jackson testified.