Saturday, April 30, 2005

Son of restaurant chain's founder convicted of murder

Associated Press

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DETROIT (-- The son of the founder of a popular chain of Middle Eastern restaurants was convicted of second-degree murder.

A Wayne County Circuit Court jury also found Khalil Chahine guilty of felonious assault Thursday in the death of Paul Hallis.

Chahine, 23, of Plymouth Township, faces up to life in prison when he is sentenced May 13.

"A major injustice has occurred today," said Chahine's father, Talal Chahine, founder of the La Shish restaurant chain. "My son did not commit this crime."

Hallis, 20, of Redford was shot May 16, 2004 and died three days later. Authorities said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over Hallis' fiancee, Salwa Ali, who had dated Chahine previously.

The trial was complicated because Chahine's brother-in-law, Ali Abbas El-Ozeir, described by police as Chahine's accomplice, fled the country after the shooting. He is in custody in his native Lebanon and has made conflicting statements to authorities there.

El-Ozeir, 22, first said he was the shooter. He later recanted and said Chahine was responsible, according to court documents. But in January, defense attorney Lawrence Shulman traveled to Lebanon with Talal Chahine, a retired judge and a court reporter and visited El-Ozeir, who again confessed to being the shooter.

Circuit Judge Michael Hathaway, who presided over the 2 1/2 -week trial, had ruled El-Ozeir's statements were admissible. But prosecutors appealed, and the state Court of Appeals reversed Hathaway's ruling in March.

Talal Chahine blasted prosecutors for appealing and the appeals court for keeping the evidence out of the trial.

"The court of appeals in their infinite wisdom maybe looked at it for all of three minutes and probably said, 'What the hell; it's from Lebanon, it's got to be baloney. Let's just throw it out the window,'" he said.

Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Stevens said: "It was a fair and just verdict and I'm glad it's over."