Crime & Safety
Gang Member Faces Sentencing Friday for 2011 Murder of Taxi Driver in Lemon Grove
Demetrius Sissac, 21, was convicted June 28 of second-degree murder in the Oct. 30, 2011, death of Jalaludin Hamrah, a 39-year-old immigrant from Afghanistan
A gang member who fatally shot a taxi driver at the end of a cab ride in Lemon Grove is scheduled to be sentenced today.
Demetrius Sissac, 21, was convicted June 28 of second-degree murder in the Oct. 30, 2011, death of Jalaludin Hamrah, a 39-year-old immigrant from Afghanistan. Jurors also found him guilty of weapons violations.
A motive for the slaying was not clear, though prosecutors said the defendant was on probation for auto theft at the time of the killing.
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The prosecution said Hamrah gave a ride to the defendant and some of his friends in the early morning hours and, at the end of that ride, Sissac shot and killed him.
The friends had no idea the defendant was going to shoot Hamrah and it was one of those friends who later turned Sissac into authorities, according to the prosecution.
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Hamrah was found dead in his cab, which crashed in the 3400 block of Main Street. Paramedics discovered a bullet wound in his upper body when they pulled him from the wreckage.
Sissac was arrested three days later.
—City News Service.
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