BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
From the first day of Ahmad Fawzi Issa's murder trial, his attorney argued that the charges against him were too complex and confusing to be true.
But it took a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court jury only about seven hours to find reason enough to believe them.
The jury's guilty verdict Wednesday means Mr. Issa will face a possible death sentence for his role in an elaborate murder-for-hire scheme that ended Nov. 22 when two brothers, Maher Khrais and Ziad Khreis, were shot to death outside their East Westwood convenience store.
It also means Mr. Issa will go to prison while Linda Khriss -- the accused mastermind of the murder plot -- remains free after beating the same charges just three months ago.
"I'm an innocent man," Mr. Issa said angrily as he was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. "There is no justice."
The verdict is the latest twist in a case that prosecutors say began when Mrs. Khriss devised a plan to kill her husband, Mr. Khrais. They say Mr. Issa was the middleman in the plot because he hired the gunman, Andre Miles, and arranged the time and place of the murder. With little direct evidence linking her to the crime, prosecutors were unable to convince a jury that Mrs. Khriss was involved in the murders. She maintained her innocence and was acquitted of all charges in May.
The victims' relatives, however, said they still believe Mr. Issa did not act alone.
"Everything is clear in this case," the victims' brother, Nidal Khrais, said after the verdict Wednesday. "Now everybody knows the truth about Linda. (Mr. Issa) will face what he faces now because of Linda."
As the verdict was read, Nidal Khrais embraced a friend and wept in the back of the courtroom. He said he traveled halfway around the world from his home in Jordan so he could attend the trial.
"I was crying because, if this man walks away, how can I tell my family?" he said. "Now we can believe that there was justice here."
Throughout the trial, prosecutors played down Mrs. Khriss' alleged role in the plot and instead focused on evidence linking Mr. Issa to the crime.
They said he met the hit man just hours before the shootings, counted the payoff money in front of several witnesses and asked a friend to lie so police would think he had an alibi. One prosecution witness testified that Mr. Issa showed him the murder weapon, an assault rifle, a few days before the shootings.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Agar said the key difference between Mr. Issa's trial and Mrs. Khriss' trial was that the accused hit man directly implicated Mr. Issa in a statement to police.
"There's no doubt that the statements he made are what the jury based the verdict on," Ms. Agar said. "Obviously, we're disappointed. It wasn't the verdict we'd hoped for."
As he was taken back to jail, Mr. Issa said he believes his Jordanian background was another reason the jury decided to convict him. "It's because I'm not from here," he shouted. "It's because I'm not from the United States that they are doing this to me."
But Mr. Khrais said his brothers, who also were from Jordan, finally got a measure of justice from an American jury.
"Now," he said, "I want to see him get the death penalty."
The jury will return Sept. 8 for the penalty phase of the trial. After hearing evidence from both sides, the jurors will determine whether Mr. Issa deserves a death sentence.
