EDEN SIMON ASFEHA-TESSEMA - 3 yo (2010) - Alexandria VA

Alexandria VA ---- Alexandria Police are searching for a man they
believe murdered his own 3-year-old daughter and the child's mother.
34-year-old Simon Bahta Asfeha is now wanted for
first-degree murder in the deaths of 27-year old Seble Tessema and their child,
according to police.






Tessema and Asfeha reportedly had a prior
relationship, but don't appear to have been married.
Police were called out to the Brent Place apartments off of 375 S. Reynolds
Street around 10:30 a.m. for reports of a domestic disturbance. Instead,
they found the bodies of the mother and child. "They found two victims
deceased on an apartment on the 14th floor. We're investigating the case
as a suspicious death right now," said Deputy Chief of
Alexandria Police Blaine Corle.
Asfeha is
reportedly driving a 1999 silver Acura with Virginia tags XKS-1522. Anyone with
information is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Section of the
Alexandria Police
Department at 703.838.4444 or the Crime Solvers tip line at (703)
838-4858. Detectives would like to remind witnesses that they remain
anonymous.

A mother and her 3 year old girl were murdered in Alexandria and
police say the girl's father, 34 year old Simon Bahta Asfeha, is the
suspect. It happened Sunday morning at a high-rise apartment
complex on 300 block of South Reynolds Street in Alexandria's West End.
Police believe Asfeha is still in the area because he has lots of
family ties here. Detectives say it was an incredibly brutal crime. It
happened on the 14th floor of the Brent Place apartment complex. Police
found 27 year old Sebel Tessema and her 3 year old daughter dead.
Sources say both had their throats slashed. Neighbors could not stomach
the horrible crime. "It's crazy. It's crazy. I mean I look out
and saw it blocked out. I came down they told me a mother and daughter.
It's crazy," said neighbor, Serena Wright. Alexandria Police
believe 34 year Simon Bahta Asfeha killed them both. Detectives say
neighbors knew something was wrong and called 911. Police arrived
moments after the double murder and found a knife tossed in the bushes
outside. The suspect who is the little girl's father got away.
"A neighbor called in. They heard noises in the hall way of the
apartment complex and called police. That's how we got the call
initially as a domestic disturbance," said Jody Donaldson, Commander of
Communications Division Alexandria Police. Murder is rare in
Alexandria but a double murder involving a toddler is tough even for
police. "It's a very traumatic scene for the officers to be the
first ones arriving to the scene and walk in and find that. These are
things they don't want to see on their day to day job," said Donaldson.
Now as police try to figure out a motive, neighbors-especially with
young ones in their family say, if true, they will never understand how
someone could kill their own child. "To take it out on your own
child, that is rough. I'm not sure the case. If it is, it's rough. I
can't see anyone doing that," said Dominick Blakeney, a neighbor. The
suspect last seen driving a 1999 silver Acura with Virginia plates
--XKS-1522. Neighbors say there was an ongoing custody issue over
the little girl. Police say the two parents did have a
relationship in the past.

AMW Capture #1111
Alleged Killler Captured in NYC



Thanks to an alert AMW Tipster, Simon Asfeha, wanted by police in Alexandria, Va., was captured in New York City on April 29, 2010.

The tipster recognized Asfeha from AMW.com and walked into a police precinct to report where they might find him. The NYPD contacted Alexandria police, and they sprang into action. Asfeha was arrested without incident.

Asfeha will soon be before a judge, facing first-degree murder charges in the deaths of his girlifriend and their 3-year-old daughter.

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=72248

Murder Suspect Heads to Grand Jury
Prosecutors say Alexandria man slit throats of his common-law wife and their baby daughter.

By Michael Lee Pope
Thursday, September 23, 2010

For years, the warning signs seemed to be flashing for Simon Bahta Asfeha, the 34-year-old Alexandria man who police and prosecutors say slit the throat of his wife and infant daughter one Sunday morning in April. Over the course of the last decade, he built up a record of convictions including making threatening phone calls, obstructing justice, probation violations and assault with a knife. Even after an Alexandria judge issued a protective order ordering him to stay away from his common-law wife and infant daughter, he showed up at the Rite Aid where she worked on King Street in 2007.

Asfeha was eventually fined $50 for contempt of court in that case, and he was sentenced to 10 days in jail. But court records show he was at it again the next year, with the common-law wife charging him with punching her in the face. That time, the case was dropped when she failed to show up for the trial date. After that, a neighbor volunteered to facilitate the movement of their child on Sundays from her apartment on the 14th floor of a West End apartment building to the lobby. Until April 11, 2010, when he arrived unexpectedly early for his appointment and made his way to the 14th floor.

"He pushed her inside," the neighbor testified in a preliminary hearing last week. "She screamed once, and then I called the police."

The call for service was logged at 9:58 a.m. When officers arrived several minutes later, they found the door was locked. By the time they tracked down a maintenance man and had him open the door 15 minutes later, it was too late. Officers found the lifeless bodies of Seble Tessema, 27, and their three-year-old daughter, Eden Simon. The Alexandria Police Department issued a description of his car, and Asfeha was featured on the Fox television show "America’s Most Wanted" and eventually arrested in New York City.

ASFEHA’S RAP SHEET begins in 1999, when he was convicted of making a threatening phone call to a man he said owed him money. The sentence in that case was suspended on the condition that he refrain from further contact with the man who brought charges against him. The next year, he was convicted of aggravated assault with a knife in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to supervised probation along with $1,000 restitution and $50 of court costs.

On Aug. 20, 2006, Asfeha and Tessema gave birth to a baby girl. Court records show the child’s life was plagued by domestic violence her entire life, caught in the middle of a troubled relationship and shielded from harm by a series of court orders. Before the child’s first birthday, an Alexandria judge issued a protective order preventing Asfeha from seeing his Tessema or the baby. But he violated the protective order and showed up at the Rite Aid where she worked on King Street.

"Officer Jobe of the Alexandria Police Department was dispatched to the location," according to a memorandum in the case. "During Officer Jobe’s investigation, the defendant continued to try and talk with Ms. Tessema even after Officer Jobe instructed him not to do so."

In late 2008, she filed another criminal complaint against him. This time, according to court records, she said they were in a heated argument when she threw his pants into his face. He responded by striking her face with his fist, according to the complaint, leaving her with a bloody nose and a swollen cheek. He was convicted in General District Court, but Asfeha appealed the case to Circuit Court. She failed to appear, and the charges were dropped.

"She was real friendly, someone who smiled a lot," said an employee of the day-care facility on the ground floor of the high rise who did not want to give her name because she was not authorized by her employer to speak to the press. "It’s weird because the little girl loved her daddy very much."

The neighbor who witnessed Asfeha push Tessema into Apartment 1407 also testified that the father and daughter seemed close, a surprising twist considering police and prosecutors say he’s guilty of killing her with a knife. The day of the murder was just like any other Sunday, the neighbor said, and she was ready to meet Asfeha downstairs just like normal. But this would not be a normal day.

"There was just one loud scream from Seble," she told the judge. "And then Eden said, ‘Mommy.’"

ASFEHA ARRIVED in a gunmetal gray smock secured with Velcro, indicating sheriff’s deputies consider him at risk of attempting suicide. Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Uley Norris Damiani heard testimony from the deceased neighbor and the defendant’s sister. Then an officer and a detective testified to what they had seen that day. The hour-long hearing culminated with a ruling from Judge Damiani.

"The court finds probably cause to certify the case to the grand jury," said Damiani.

After the hearing concluded, Public Defender Melinda Douglas declined to comment.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=344430&paper=59&cat=104

Virginia: Simon Bahta claims insanity in killings of his daughter and ex-girlfriend
Mar 30, 2011 | Posted by Ethiopiaforums |


A frail-voiced Simon Bahta pled not guilty by reason of insanity to murdering his 3-year-old daughter and ex-girlfriend Monday at Alexandria’s courthouse.

Alexandria police found 27-year-old Seble Tessema and the former couple’s 3-year-old daughter, Eden, dead in Tessema’s West End apartment on April 11, 2010. Both of their throats were slit and Tessema was stabbed 40 times, authorities said.

Police arrested Bahta, 35, also known as Simon Asfeha, in New York later that month after a national manhunt.

Nearly a year later, the defense’s case rests on Bahta was psychotic at the time of the slayings. Public defender Melinda Douglas used the gruesome crime scene to claim her client’s innocence Monday.

“The degree of violence … especially to that child raises the question of insanity,” Douglas told the jury in her opening statement. “There wasn’t really a reason for it and that’s why it’s insanity … the Commonwealth won’t be able to explain to you the ‘why.’”

The prosecution used the same graphic crime scene to portray their case to the jury. Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Krista Boucher evoked “pools of blood” and Eden’s throat “slit the bone” in her opening statement.

Hard forensic evidence and witnesses would prove Bahta was a “sane and jealous man” guilty of both murders, Boucher said.

Bahta’s lawyers will prove several years of mental illness stemming from his forced conscription into the Ethiopian army as a 14-year-old during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, and culminating in a custody battle over Eden, Douglas said.

A teary friend and brief roommate, Mahlat Samual, testified in the case as the first witness. She was with Bahta in the days before the slayings and heard him arguing with Tessema on the phone.

“I’m either going to die or you guys are going to die, but somebody’s got to die,” she remembered Bahta saying.

Judge Lisa Kemler is presiding over the trial, which is expected to run at least through the end of the week.

Related Video:



http://ethiopiaforums.com/virginia-simon-bahta-claims-insanity-in-killings-of-his-daughter-and-ex-girlfriend

Jury Recommends Two Life Sentences Plus Twenty Years In Alexandria Double Homicide
Apr 01, 2011

By Carla Branch
alexandrianews.org



This morning, an Alexandria Circuit Court jury recommended that Simon Bahta Asfeha serve two life sentences plus twenty years for murdering his ex-girlfriend and their daughter. Imposition of sentencing has been postponed until May 26, so that the probation office may complete a pre-sentence report.

On April 11, 2010, Asfeha, 35, went to the home of Seble Tassemara, 27, and their three-year-old daughter, Eden, to pick up the child for a scheduled visit. He entered the apartment at 300 South Reynolds Street in Alexandria’s West End, and slit Tessemara’s and the child’s throat. He fled the scene and was ultimately located and arrested in New York.

“The trial started Monday, March 28, ” said Alexandria’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Sengel. “The defendant asserted a defense of not guilty by reason of insanity. The defendant was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of statutory burglary on Thursday afternoon.

“On Friday morning the jury returned to take up the issue of sentencing, and returned a sentencing verdict fixing the punishment at life for each of the two murder convictions, and twenty years for the burglary conviction. This is the maximum sentence possible on these charges.

“On a request by the defendant for a pre-sentence report, the case was continued to May 26, for imposition of sentence by the Court. Under Virginia law, the Court retains the authority to reduce a sentence recommended by a jury, but may not increase it,” Sengel said.

http://www.alexandrianews.org/2011/04/jury-recommends-two-life-sentences-plus-twenty-years-in-alexandria-double-homicide/