A Cook County jury deliberated just about an hour before convicting Daryoush Ebrahimi of three counts of first-degree murder. He faces mandatory life imprisonment with that verdict.
The four-day trial was marred by several outbursts by Ebrahimi. At one point the judge ordered him removed from the courtroom.
Among the evidence against Ebrahimi were admissions he left in a journal and a cellphone video.
Ebrahimi’s youngest daughter, Elbra, 23, testified that she had called Chicago police five days before the murders after her father became violent with her and her mother, Karmin Khoo-shabeh.
She also told the jury of a long history of abuse of her mother by her father dating back to Iran. “I have seen him punch her in the face to a degree that she would bleed,” she said.
The February 2007 murders were reportedly triggered by Ebrahimi’s anger over the police involvement days earlier and his belief that his wife wanted a divorce, according to evidence submitted at the trial.
Ebrahimi first used a hammer and knife to kill his wife, 44, in their apartment. Several hours later, he killed his wife’s sister, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40, after luring her to the apartment with a phone call. He then walked to his mother-in-law’s apartment and bludgeoned and stabbed Ileshvah Eyvazimooshabad, 60, to death.
In the journal, Ebrahimi wrote of his outrage toward his wife and her family, whom he blamed for her attempts to free herself from him. “Elbra,” he wrote to his youngest daughter. “I cannot divorce your mother. Only one thing can separate me from your mother. And it is death.”
Ebrahimi also explained why he attacked the women in the cellphone video. “I will not divorce her,” he can be heard saying. “Either she will die or I will die.”
