An American woman who wore a niqab disguise and tried to shoot a stranger dead in the street only for the gun to jam is facing a life sentence.
Aimee Betro, 45, was flown to the UK from Wisconsin by Mohammed Aslam, 59, and Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who orchestrated the murder plot to settle a ‘vendetta’ with a rival family in Birmingham in September 2019.
The city’s crown court heard the father and son wanted ‘revenge’ against Aslat Mahumad after they were beaten up at his clothing boutique a year earlier.
Betro donned the disguise and lay in wait outside Mr Mahumad’s home on September 7 before approaching his son Sikander Ali, with CCTV showing her raising her arm and pulling the trigger at point-blank range.
Fortunately, Mr Ali managed to flee when the gun jammed and jurors heard Betro returned hours later and fired three shots into the family home, which was empty at the time.
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It took jurors 21 hours to convict Betro of conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol with intent to cause fear of violence, and a charge of illegally importing ammunition.
Betro, who was wearing a purple T-shirt and with her hair in space buns, stared towards the jury bench as the verdicts were returned.
She was found guilty by a majority 11-1 verdict on the conspiracy to murder and firearm charges, and by a unanimous verdict on the ammunition charge.
Nazir and Aslam were jailed at the same court in November last year for their part in the plot, with the younger man given 32 years and his dad 10.
Betro flew back to the US days after the bungled assassination attempt and was later extradited to the UK.
The court was told she was involved in another of Nazir’s plots when she sent three parcels of gun parts and ammunition to the UK a month later.
They were addressed to a man named Faris Quayum, whom Nazir was hoping to frame by tipping police off to the delivery.
Prosecutor Tom Walkling KC told jurors: ‘The prosecution say that the evidence in this case is compelling and strong.
‘Aimee Betro was the would-be assassin on September 7, 2019.
‘She was the shooter on Measham Grove in the early hours of the next day, and she was the person who furthered another of Nazir’s vendettas when she sent ammunition to the UK in October 2019.’
Betro denied any involvement in the failed hit, telling the court she flew to the UK to celebrate her birthday and go to a boat party.
She also maintained that a woman described as having an American accent and being small and fat, who bought a BMW linked to the plot, was not her.
Betro suggested it must have been ‘another American woman’ who sounded like her, used her phone, and had almost identical trainers on.
The fact that she happened to be around the corner from the shooting minutes later was ‘all just a terrible coincidence’, she added.
Cross-examining Betro, Mr Walkling said: ‘So there must be, on your case, another American woman in Birmingham at the same time as you, who knew Mr Nazir, who sounded similar to you, who used the cheap phone that you bought, who called (a taxi firm) on your own telephone, and who wore at the very least the same sort of Converse trainers you had.’
Betro answered: ‘Yes.’
She will be sentenced later.
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