CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – On Friday, Hamid Houbbadi was sentenced to life in prison plus 12 years for the 2018 murder of his estranged wife, Leila Chanane, at the couple’s Bellamy Lane home.
The 43-year-old was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree murder in perpetration of a crime and especially aggravated burglary by a Montgomery County jury in January.
Love gone wrong
During the sentencing hearing on Friday, Houbbadi decided to make an unsworn statement to the court, in which he explained his version of the events leading up to the death of his wife.
Houbbadi, who used an interpreter throughout his trial and at the sentencing, made his comments in English.
“Just want to say I am sorry (for) what I did, and nobody deserves to be hurt or be killed, and I just wanted to tell you my story because I didn’t get a chance to tell the jury about my story,” Houbbadi said.
He said he met Chanane in 2014 in Morocco, and they began to date. After a month, Houbbadi said he came back to the U.S., and he applied for her to come as well on a visa. She came to the U.S. the following year.
They got married in September 2015, and he applied for a two-year green card for Chanane, which he said was approved. They moved to Clarksville and bought a house in May 2018.
In August 2018, Houbbadi said he and his wife took a weeklong vacation to Panama City Beach, Florida. When they returned, they found a notification in the mail that Chanane did not receive her permanent green card, but instead received a six-month extension.
“She’d have to wait. … She thought I sabotaged her paper, I told her I didn’t do nothing. That’s a federal crime if I do something to her immigration, I didn’t do nothing,” Houbbadi explained.
He said Chanane began to argue with him about it, and so he went into another room in their home to sleep.
“The next day, I went to Home Depot and I got me a lock, and I moved. She lived in the master bedroom and I lived in the other room,” Houbbadi said, adding that from then onward, they didn’t talk and only communicated via text message.
In 2018, Houbbadi was working in Nashville. One day after returning from work, Houbbadi said he found that his locked room had been broken into. He accused Chanane of the break-in, adding that she broke into his safe as well and stole $11,750.
“I called the police, the police came … I have the report here that says ‘forced entry’ in the door, the room,” Houbbadi continued while holding up a stack of papers at the podium.
The following day, Houbbadi said he was served with the ex parte order of protection and that he had 15 minutes to gather his belongings and leave the house. He went and stayed with a friend in Franklin.
On Oct. 1, 2018 Houbbadi said he went to hire an attorney for their divorce, and for the order of protection hearing. He brought the friend he had been staying with in Franklin with him.
While they were talking to the attorney, Houbbadi said the attorney mentioned that he knew Chanane, and so he brought in another attorney from the practice to work on his case.
The ex parte hearing was scheduled for Oct. 9, however Houbbadi said it was pushed to Nov. 13 because the judge was not there and interpreter’s schedule did not align.
‘I lost it’
On Oct. 19, Houbbadi said he got a text from the Walmart Pharmacy on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard alerting him that his automatic prescription refill would be ready soon. He drove from Nashville back to Clarksville.
When he arrived, Houbbadi said the pharmacy told him it would be another 15 minutes until his prescription was ready.
“That’s when I precede to go to my home looking for my money. I was going to and I went to take my car first, I said, ‘No, if somebody will call the police because I’m not allowed to go there so I will catch Uber,'” Houbbadi said.
He said when he got to his house, he found a magazine that had the attorney’s name and phone number on it — the same one who said he knew Chanane.
“That’s why I decide to wait for my wife to talk to her about that because I lost it,” Houbbadi said while choked up.
He said he had filed a complaint with the state law board about the attorney, adding that he didn’t know what the attorney’s relationship was with his wife.
“I wish I never go to my house … I never even had a speeding ticket … I never have nothing,” Houbbadi added while crying.
Devil in the details
District Attorney General Robert Nash said that even though Houbbadi’s statement wasn’t sworn, it partially explained the motive behind his actions.
“He thinks she stole, and that explains why her purse is in the bathroom rummaged through when her lunch box was outside and she was outside,” Nash said.
He said Houbbadi’s explanation also didn’t account for why the electricity was cut 15 minutes after he arrived at his home.
“The devil is always in the details in these cases, judge,” Nash continued.
Judge Robert Bateman then asked Nash to recount how many stab wounds Chanane had, which was nine in total: two on the front of her torso, and seven in her back.
Charles Bloodworth, who served as Houbbadi’s defense attorney for the hearing, said that the events leading up to Chanane’s murder were frustrating for Houbbadi.
He added that everything before the couple received the notification from immigration about Chanane’s green card did not correlate to a troubled marriage.
“That’s not something you do with somebody you’re going to kill,” Bloodworth said of their vacation.
Judge Bateman then announced that Houbbadi’s sentence would be life in prison for the two first-degree murder charges, and then an additional 12 years for the especially aggravated burglary charge.