COLUMBUS – A 23-year-old man faces life in prison without parole when he is sentenced next month for the murder of another man during a fight inside an East Side apartment building in 2021.
Following a four-day trial in March, jurors found Amir Osama Elkhabiry (right) guilty of aggravated murder with a firearm specification of Melly Mel Smith in February 2021, according to a press release from the office of Franklin County Prosecutor Gary Tyack.
The jurors also convicted Elkhabiry of being a repeat violent offender and having a weapon while under a disability because he was on post-release control for an aggravated robbery conviction when the incident occurred, Tyack said.
Within ten minutes of being called to scene, officers found Elkhabiry hiding in the trunk of his girlfriend’s vehicle with the murder weapon in his hand less than 100 yards from where Smith, 27, was lying stairwell inside the apartment building on Fountainview Court, according to Tyack’s office and homicide unit detectives.
Elkhabiry will be sentenced on May 24 and he faces a minimum of 29 years to life in prison and a maximum term of life without parole, Tyack said.