Dad sentenced to life without parole for killing 4 kids, raping wife (Louisville, Kentucky)

The mother tried to limit dad SAID BIYAD's access to the children because he was "angry and controlling."  Given that Dad has been convicted of murdering all four kids, can we now affirm that her concerns were legitimate?

http://www.mydesert.com/article/B2/20110609/NEWS01/306090030/Said-Biyad-sentenced-life-without-parole-killing-his-four-children?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Said Biyad sentenced to life without parole for killing his four children, raping wife
3:57 PM, Jun. 9, 2011
Written by Jason Riley

Saying it was the “worst criminal case” he had seen during his 18 years on the bench, a Jefferson Circuit Court judge on Thursday sentenced a Somali refugee to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering his four children and raping his wife in their Louisville apartment in 2006.

Said Biyad, 47, said nothing during his sentencing, sitting expressionless and still as he listened to his interpreter.

It was a vast departure from his four-day bench trial in April, where Biyad disrupted the proceedings several times with outbursts, then testified that three mysterious men in a blue van killed his children.

In fact, Biyad beat and raped his wife, Fatuma Amir, on Oct. 6, 2006, and then went to the rooms of his children — Goshany, Khadija, Fatuma and Sidi Ali, ages 2 through 8 — and slashed their throats repeatedly, even as two of the youngsters fought for their lives, prosecutors say.

“This was one of the most horrific crime scenes I've seen documented,” Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Christie Foster told reporters after the sentencing, adding that everyone in the courtroom was “torn apart” as an audio of Amir's screams in her call to 911 were played during the trial. “This was one like we haven't seen in this community in a long time. Hopefully we will never see it again.”

Biyad's wife chose not to attend the sentencing, but Foster said it was “her wish that he never see the light of day, and frankly I agree wholeheartedly.”

Judge James Shake could have sentenced Biyad to as few as 20 years in prison or handed down a death sentence.

But he followed the recommendation of both the prosecution and defense, who agreed to take the death penalty off the table and allow Shake, not a jury, to decide the outcome. Prosecutors said that was appropriate given all the factors in the case, including the possibility that a jury could have found Biyad insane.

After the four-day trial, Shake found Biyad guilty on four counts of murder, as well as attempted murder, assault, rape , and tampering with physical evidence.

Foster told Shake that during the trial, Biyad saw bloody photographs and video of his children, their throats cut, heard testimony from his wife about being raped and beaten with a mallet and “he did not shed a tear. He has shown absolutely no remorse.”

“… Mr. Biyad does not belong on the streets,” Foster told Shake. “He is a dangerous man, a dangerous individual.”

Defense attorneys had argued that Biyad was mentally ill and could not control his actions. On Thursday, they raised the possibility Biyad was borderline mentally retarded, with an IQ in the 70s.

Attorney Mike Lemke asked Shake to avoid sentencing Biyad to death, saying the agreement reached by the prosecution and defense of life without parole was “reasonable, logical” and fair.

Lemke said it is expected that the guilty verdict will be appealed, although he didn't say on what grounds.

During the trial, prosecutors said Biyad was a “possessive, angry man” who was upset his wife had more power than he did — she had a job and was taking care of the children, limiting his access to them, something that would not have happened in his native Somalia.

And, the prosecution claimed, he recently had found out she was pregnant and believed it was another man's child.

Foster told Shake that Biyad walked into Louisville Metro Police headquarters the day of the murders and told a detective, in detail, about killing his family, then had the “audacity to get on the stand and change his story and claim he did not do it.”

Biyad said during the trial the lengthy videotaped confession that was played in court was “made up,” with someone else answering questions from Detective Chris Middleton in English.

Instead, Biyad testified that three men knocked on his door and asked where his wife was.

He said they gave him a drink that had something in it and “my head started exploding,” telling him he was being kidnapped. Biyad said the men demanded $10 million, and then he went into a room where his wife was sleeping to tell her what was happening.

Biyad said his wife “didn't care” and told him to deal with it, leading to a fight between the two. As they were fighting, Biyad said, the men went into his children's rooms and killed them.

Biyad testified he tried to call 911, but the men stopped him, although he said they later offered him a ride to the police station, which he declined.

He also said they gave him the murder weapon, a knife, which he disposed of in a trash bin, and took a bus to the police station.

In the interview with Middleton that was played in court, Biyad said Amir tried to get him to leave the family's apartment in the 1400 block of Bicknell Avenue off Taylor Boulevard the day of the killings, pushing him out the front door and cursing him, leading to a confrontation between the two.

Biyad told the detective that after he hit Amir with a mallet, knocking her unconscious, she woke and started shouting, so he grabbed a knife and chased her, but she locked herself in a room.

“I said ‘OK, I know you are going to put me (in) jail, I already hit you,'” he said. “I have to finish this proper.”

Biyad said he intended to kill himself, but didn't know how. Instead, he went into his children's rooms.

Two of the children were awake. Biyad said on the tape that he told them to close their eyes and sleep before cutting their throats.

“This is a bad thing I did, very bad,” Biyad told Middleton.

Jefferson County Coroner Barbara Weakley-Jones testified that two of the children had defense wounds, mostly on their hands and arms. She said the oldest child, Sidi, was hit on the head with a mallet and had his throat slashed.

Amir testified at trial that Biyad raped her and beat her with a blunt object, causing her to lose consciousness. When she came to, she said she began calling for her children, but received no response.

She also testified that Biyad is the father of her child born after the slayings.

Dr. Greg Perri, a psychologist who met with Biyad at the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center in La Grange, testified that while Biyad has a paranoid personality disorder, he had no symptoms of psychotic behavior the day of the murders and was able to appreciate that he had committed a crime.

The defense presented testimony from a psychiatrist, Dr. Walter Butler, who said Biyad was a paranoid schizophrenic who was mentally ill at the time of the killings. In interviews with Biyad in 2008, Butler testified, Biyad said he believed he was a millionaire and people were trying to kill him.

Biyad testified he had never seen Butler before and “he made up a lot of stuff.”