A Guyanese man, Shiek Imtiaz Azeez, was on Thursday sentenced by a court in the US state of Kansas to four years and seven months jail for shooting his wife, Sandra Azeez.
According to report in the online edition of the Topeka Capital-Journal, moments before he was jailed, Azeez looked at his wife and mouthed, “I love you.”
Shawnee County Dis-trict Court Judge Nancy Parrish then sentenced Azeez to four years and seven months.
The report said that on March 7, Azeez pleaded guilty to a charge of attempted
second-degree murder in the shooting of his spouse on Oct. 10 last year.
On Nov. 6, he waived his preliminary hearing.
The report said that the shooting was the result of a “perfect storm” of occurrences, including problems with the family business, his becoming drunk, and Azeez and his wife arguing, defence attorney Stacey Donovan said.
The report said that the argument centred on whether his wife was involved in a relationship with another man. Azeez then pulled a pistol from under a sofa cushion, assistant district attorney Dan Dunbar said and shot his wife in the chest, then in the abdomen.
“He is lucky she didn’t die that night,” Dunbar said. “He would be looking at life” in prison.
After shooting his wife, the report said that Azeez turned the gun on himself and pulled the trigger, but the pistol jammed and didn’t fire.
Robert Barnett, a clinical psychologist, testified that the shooting wouldn’t have occurred had he not consumed alcohol.
Donovan asked the judge for leniency and requested that Azeez be placed on probation, noting he is concerned he might be deported to his home country of Guyana.
“I want to apologize to my wife for this shameful act,” Azeez said, according to the report, before he was sentenced. “I love my wife.”
The judge denied the request for leniency, saying she was “terribly concerned” about the availability of the alcohol and pistol and Azeez’s lack of control.
