Tahereh Ghassemi’s Ex-Husband Hamid Ghassemi, a Baton Rouge businessman, was convicted in her 2015 murder-for-hire case. Hamid stood trial in August 2023 when a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder after years of delay. In September, he received a life sentence for his role in the crime and is currently in custody at the Louisiana Department of Corrections.
Sources confirmed that Hamid hired three hitmen, namely Daniel Richter, Tyler Ashpaugh, and Skyler Williams, to have Tahereh murdered. All three men pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Richter and Williams received 30 years to life in prison. The former also served as the prosecution’s star witness at Hamid’s trial. Elsewhere, Ashpaugh died while in prison.
Dateline NBC is scheduled to revisit Tahereh Ghassemi’s murder-for-hire case in an episode titled “The Ultimate Betrayal.” The all-new episode airs on the network this Thursday, November 30, 2023, at 10 p.m. ET.
Hamid Ghassemi now: Is he in prison & how was he caught?
Hamid Ghassemi, convicted of ex-wife Tahereh Ghassemi’s murder-for-hire, is in custody at the Louisiana Department of Corrections. His conviction was based on hitman Daniel Richter’s testimony, among other crucial evidence detectives acquired while investigating the murder. Richter testified that “Hamid asked me if I could help with a situation with his wife.” He claimed that the accused paid him and his accomplices $10,000 to carry out the murder.
The hired hitmen reportedly kidnapped Tahereh on April 11, 2015. They placed her in her car trunk before driving to a wooded area in St. Helena Parish where Tyler Ashpaugh shot the woman in the head with a .22-caliber revolver. After this, they burned her car on Chalma Avenue near Choctaw Drive, Baton Rouge.
According to WAFB Channel 9, investigators used cell phone and cell tower records to place Hamid at the victim’s home house on the night she disappeared, i.e., April 11, 2015. They used the same records to place him in the wooded area where they found her body.
Police arrested Ashpaugh and Skyler Williams in May 2015 following which they admitted to carrying out the murder on Hamid’s orders. They claimed that he paid them $10,000 to execute the plan and even provided them with gasoline to burn Tahereh’s car.
Each of the hired hitmen pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Richter and Williams received a 30-year prison sentence, respectively, while Ashpaugh was handed 40 years after he admitted to firing the shot that killed the 54-year-old.
A WBRZ-TV report mentioned that Hamid and Tahereh had divorced recently and that the former owed the victim more than $1 million and two homes in the settlement. Prosecutors had alleged that he had his ex-wife killed to avoid paying the settlement amount.
