Inset: Dr. Hamid Mirshojae (Detox Woodland Hills). Background: The Los Angeles Police Department investigates the murder of Mirshojae, who was shot to death outside his detox clinic (KABC/YouTube).
The ex-wife of a California doctor who reportedly helped celebrities and athletes overcome addiction allegedly hired the man who killed her ex-husband in an ambush-style murder for “financial gain.”
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman announced Monday that his office is charging 53-year-old Ahang Mirshojae with murder in the death of her ex-husband, Dr. Hamid Mirshojae.
“She’s been charged with, effectively, hiring a hitman,” Hochman said at a press conference.
Ahang Mirshojae is charged with murder and assault with a deadly weapon. According to Hochman, the ex-wife hired Evan Hardman, 41, to sneak up behind the doctor as he left his Woodland Hills practice in August and shoot him in the back of the head before a getaway driver, Ashley Rose Sweeting, 40, helped him flee the scene. Another defendant, 26-year-old Sarallah Jawed, also helped carry out the scheme by driving Hardman to Texas after the murder, prosecutors say.
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“The horror and betrayal of this crime are beyond words,” Hochman said in a statement. “The depth of the deceit and violence involved in this case is chilling, and we will not rest until justice is served.”
Hardman is accused of intentionally killing the victim by “lying in wait.” Sweeting, who is charged with accessory after the fact, allegedly drove Hardman to and from the scene. Hardman and Sweeting waited until Dr. Mirshojae, 61, walked out of his office around 5:30 p.m. Aug. 23 and the alleged gunman carried out the murder as he was entering his car, prosecutors said.
Hochman also revealed that Ahang Mirshojae hired Hardman and Jawed to jump her ex-husband on May 3 and beat him with a blunt object, reportedly a baseball bat. Dr. Mirshojae and his ex-wife have had a decade-long legal battle over their divorce, Los Angeles NBC affiliate KNBC reported, citing legal documents. Prosecutors said she ordered the hit for “financial gain” but have not said what role the reported divorce battle may have played in the slaying. Hamid Mirshojae had since remarried.
Revelations of the doctor’s ex-wife allegedly orchestrating the murder have left his family stunned.
“Immediately I start thinking about my nephews and nieces. Their father was killed, and now their mother was the cause. I still can’t digest it. I don’t understand. Taking somebody’s life, it’s beyond me,” his younger brother Alireza Mirshojae told KNBC. “It’s like I can’t understand how could somebody feel so much anger and resentment, and I don’t understand how someone would feel to do something like this.”
As Law&Crime previously reported, officers arrested Hardman in the Houston area and Sweeting in the San Fernando Valley earlier this month.
According to his biography on his website, Dr. Mirshojae worked in addiction medicine for over a decade and provided emergency care for 20 years. It said he treated “celebrities, movie stars, athletes and many people of different walks of life.”
“He has helped thousands of patients achieve their goal of having a sober life,” the bio said.
Local CW affiliate KTLA reported the doctor hailed from Iran. Friends and former patients spoke highly of him.
“Everyone in the Woodland Hills area, even in LA, they know him because he was a really good doctor,” family friend Maryem Alaei told KTLA in the aftermath of the shooting. “Always laughing, always joking, always helping people.”
Said former patient Pamia Mazahrei: “I don’t know why bad things happen to people who are good in this world.”
