The ex-wife of a Woodland Hills doctor — who a few months ago wept at his memorial — hired a hitman to ambush and murder him for financial gain, prosecutors say.
Ahang Kelk, 53, is charged with one felony count of murder and one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon in the slaying of Hamid Mirshojae, the L.A. County district attorney’s office announced Monday. Prosecutors said Kelk enlisted the help of several people to carry out the slaying, three of whom have already been charged for their alleged role in the murderous scheme.
The 61-year-old doctor was leaving his Woodland Hills medical practice after work on Aug. 23, when a masked man crept up on him and shot him in the back of the head, said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. The slaying occurred just months after the doctor was jumped by a trio of men wielding baseball bats, an attack that he said left him fearing for his life.
Evan Hardman, 41, of Texas and and Sarallah Jawed, 26, of Canoga Park are accused of staging both the attacks.
Ashley Rose Sweeting, 40, of Reseda, drove Hardman to the Warner Plaza Medical Clinic, where he delivered the fatal gunshot after ambushing Mirshojae with a handgun, prosecutors said. She then whisked him away and allegedly rendezvoused with Jawed, who transported the accused hitman to Texas.
Hardman was arrested in Texas on Tuesday and is awaiting extradition to Los Angeles, prosecutors said.
Both men are charged with one felony count of murder and one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon. Sweeting is charged with an accessory to murder and had pleaded not guilty.
Hardman and Mirshojae were scheduled to be arraigned on Monday. Information on their pleas was not immediately available.
“The depth of the deceit and violence involved in this case is chilling,” said Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman in a statement. “We will not rest until justice is served.”
The alleged motive for the killing was financial gain, he said.
Since divorcing in 2009, Mirshojae and Kelk had been engaged in an acrimonious and protracted legal battle.
They fought over real estate and child support for their two kids. Mirshojae accused his wife of committing fraud to avoid paying him hundreds of thousands of dollars she had been ordered to fork over.
At separate points, they both sought restraining orders and claimed the other was threatening to kill them.
Court documents revealed a muddy picture of the couple’s financial standing. At times they were living large, paying for private school tuition and driving sports cars. Later, they were accused of failing to pay legal bills and claimed they had no money.
Kelk was immediately identified as a person of interested following the slaying but brushed off the accusations, telling The Times in August, “It’s all lies.” At the time, she said Mirshojae had been “an amazing person toward everybody” and that she wished the killer “suffers for the rest of the moments he breathes.”
A fifth person, Shawn Randolph, 46, of Valley Village, was arrested Thursday in connection to the killing. Charges against him have not yet been announced.
Hochman said at this time there are only four defendants in the case, which he anticipates being prosecuted through a joint trial.
“For the last four months the LAPD, alongside our partner agencies, has worked tirelessly to bring those responsible for this ambush-style murder to justice,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement. “The men and women of the LAPD will leave no stone unturned to deliver justice and return a sense of calm to our communities.”
Multiple law agencies collaborated with the LAPD in the investigations, including the FBI field offices in Los Angeles and Houston, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Harris County Sheriff’s Department in Texas and the Houston Police Department.
Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.
