BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Linda Khriss
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Now that the murder trials are over, the family feud begins.
Cleared of any connection to
her husband's murder, Linda Khriss will soon be back in court battling her late husband's brother for a $200,000 inheritance and what's left of her pride.
For the two Jordanian families, money is far less an issue than honor. Mrs. Khriss, 38, of Cheviot, says since her acquittal she has been ostracized and vilified. Her brother-in-law, Nidal Khrais, 39, still thinks she was the mastermind behind her husband's death and wants to prove it in civil court.
"The culture in Jordan, when it comes to murders, it's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth," said Faris Naser, 49, who emigrated from Jordan and is now part of Greater Cincinnati's Jordanian Culture Club. "It could be slightly different nowadays, but it's a different culture. Everything that happens to a family, everyone gets involved."
In Jordan, a country the size of Ohio, Mrs. Khriss, then known as Hiyam Sweis, came from a Christian village. Her husband, Maher Khrais, 35, came from a Muslim one.
That was where their troubles began. She says her family disowned her because she married outside her religion about a decade ago. The couple settled in Ohio, where Maher Khrais had family in Columbus, and eventually moved to Cincinnati to run small grocery businesses.
But the marriage was imperfect. They were unable to have children, and Maher Khrais, known as "Big Mike," was dissolving his marriage to Mrs. Khriss. Mr. Khrais, whose culture accepted multiple wives, was planning to head back to Jordan, where he was married to another woman, and bring her back to America to bear his child.
But before that could happen, he and his brother, Ziad Khreis, 49, a former colonel in the Jordanian army, were shot execution-style with a Mac-90 Chinese assault rifle. They died Nov. 22 in the parking lot of Save Way II, the family's East Westwood grocery.
Within two weeks of the deaths, Mrs. Khriss was charged with orchestrating the plot to kill her husband. A jury cleared her of all charges in May.
But the middleman and the shooter were convicted of aggravated murder and could be sent to death row. Grocery employee Ahmad Fawzi Issa, known as "Little Mike," was the middleman who persuaded Andre Miles, a store customer from Winton Place, to be the gunman. Their sentencing hearings are scheduled for this month. Mr. Miles' trial resumes Monday with testimony related to sentencing options.
Nidal Khrais was in Jordan when his brothers were killed, but he came here to watch the American justice system. So far, he isn't satisfied.
"In Jordan, this is blood," he said. "The rules are different here. I have to continue with the civil case. This is the only justice I can get."
For Mrs. Khriss, family pride is something she may never regain. She is a free woman. But unaccepted by the Jordanian community in Cincinnati and disowned by her family, she wants nothing more than to leave this place and start over.
She still wears a gold necklace she says was a gift from her husband. It has her Arabic name, Hiyam, encircled in one heart, and his name in the other.
While she was accused in her trial of being motivated by greed, she says money is unimportant to her.
When the trials are over, Nidal Khrais says he hopes to return to Jordan with justice he did not find in the criminal trials. Mrs. Khriss also wants to go somewhere where she will be accepted.
"I don't care if I lose both businesses," she said of her groceries. "If I can have bread and water and peace of mind, that is all I want, because no amount of money will bring my husband back."
