BY JOHN HOPKINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dragging a garbage bag of her belongings, Linda Khriss left jail Friday evening a free woman -- telling her accusers to "find God" and wondering about her life, now, as a widow.
"Right now, I don't know really what I want to do," she said. "I just want to be with my family and see that I have a good time and see that I get a good night's sleep.
"My life will never be normal now . . . The love of my life is gone. My life will never be normal again."
Ms. Khriss, escorted by a corrections officer, walked out the rotating doors of the Hamilton County Justice Center an hour after she was found not guilty of aggravated murder in the contract killing of her husband.
The 38-year-old Cheviot woman was greeted outside with hugs from family members, as other prisoners stared from jailhouse windows. At a bus stop across the street, one spectator yelled, "She got away with killing her husband."
Ms. Khriss continued to maintain her innocence.
After marrying Maher Khrais, an East Westwood grocer, she said shewas excluded from the lives of her mother, father, brother or sisters for eight years, "because I married out of my religion." How could anyone believe she could pay someone $2,000 to kill that same man, she wondered.
"I would never kill the man that I love," she said. "I've been sitting in the Hamilton County Justice Center for six months. I had to prove that I'm an innocent person.
"It's not, "You're innocent until you're proven guilty.' You're guilty until you prove yourself innocent."
In all of her joy Friday evening, she showed hints of anger at prosecutors, police and other accusers. They were the people who nearly placed her on death row, she said.
"They need to find God. Pick up a Bible or a Holy Koran and read it. Find God. That's all I'm going to say."
She will not live in Cincinnati, she said. Neither will she return to Jordan.
Two men -- an alleged middleman and an alleged hired gunman -- are expected to stand trial this summer in the Nov. 22 slayings of her husband and his brother, Ziad Khreis.
"I knew by the grace of God everything would come to an end like this," Ms. Khriss said. "I had faith in God. I had faith in my attorney and faith in the system. And I knew I was going to be out and free on a day like this."
