http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2011/03/09/2011-03-09_buffalo_tv_exec_gets_25_to_life_for_beheading_wife.htmlA Buffalo man got 25 years to life Wednesday for beheading his wife in 2009.
Muzzammil Hassan was convicted in February of the monstrous murder of his spouse, Aasiya Hassan. It took the jury less than an hour to find him guilty of second-degree murder.
The life sentence was accompanied by an order of protection to prevent the killer from contacting his two children.
"The defendant viciously killed ... and desecrated [his wife's] body because six days earlier she had dared to file for divorce," Assistant District Attorney Paul Bonanno said.
The 46-year-old lured his wife to the television studio where the couple worked on Feb. 12, 2009. He then attacked her with a pair of hunting knives, stabbed her 40 times, then severed her head.
Muzzammil Hassan's children testified during the trial that their father had been violent toward their stepmother in the past. No charges were ever brought over the abuse, despite several domestic violence calls to 911, police said.
The husband claimed as his defense that his wife was abusive toward him and that his actions were justified, claiming he suffered from battered spouse syndrome.
"The prosecution has never asked, who started it?" the killer said during his trial, WIVB 4 News in Buffalo reported. "They never asked the question, who started it? That is the core question that needs to be answered."
Muzzammil Hassan founded Bridge TV in 2004. The American-Islamic station was designed to combat the negative stereotype of Muslims post-9/11. His wife was its general manager.
Topic: Muzzammil Hassan gets 25 to life for beheading wife, Aasiya Hassan (Read 453 times)