news-record.com

GREENSBORO — A High Point man who plotted to kill his wife was sentenced to 10 years in prison Friday afternoon even though his wife testified that she has forgiven him.

Sabbir Hussain Shah, 56, was given the maximum sentence on a charge of using interstate commerce in commission of murder for hire.

“There is good in the worst of people and there is bad in the best of people, and this is among the worst things you could do without having your wife killed,” said U.S. District Court Judge N. Carlton Tilley. “I don’t think that (10 years) is sufficient for what has been done.”

The sentence came after emotional testimony from the target of the murder plot, 40-year-old Nayyah Shah, who begged the court to go easy on her family and her husband.

Nayyah Shah testified the murder-for-hire plot stemmed from a long-standing dispute between her family and Sabbir Shah’s in their native Pakistan.

She said that rivalry boiled over in the summer and fall of 2008 when Nayyah Shah’s family was plotting an arranged marriage of the couple’s 17-year-old daughter to her first cousin.

Such a marriage is common in Pakistani culture.

Nayyah Shah and her three children traveled home to Pakistan in June 2008, according to her testimony. Her family discussed whether her daughter would marry her sister’s son.

Nayyah Shah said she turned down the proposal because she wanted her daughter to get an education in the United States.

She said her husband accused her of helping to arrange the marriage at the behest of her father and brother.

Sabbir Shah also accused her of saying she was going to take the children away from him, according to her testimony. She denied his accusation.

In early November, court records indicate Sabbir Shah plotted to have his brother-in-law killed over the marriage arrangement and made statements that he believed her father and brother were out to kill him and take his money.

But his attention soon turned toward having his wife killed instead. He offered $500 and a Lexus to an associate who repossessed vehicles for his business, Zee Auto Sales in High Point, according to court records.

Court records and court testimony say he gave a house key to the man to kill Nayyah Shah when she arrived home after taking her kids to school one morning in November.

Sabbir Shah was leaving for Pakistan that same week and enlisted the man to kill his wife while he was out of the country, court records indicate.

By that time, High Point police and the FBI were already pursuing the case after being tipped off by the associate. Authorities followed Sabbir Shah and taped conversations detailing the plot.

Sabbir Shah was arrested Nov. 12, the day he planned to leave the country. He pleaded guilty in April.

At the sentencing, Nayyah Shah said she forgave her husband, whom she called a loving, caring father and husband.

She asked the judge for mercy.

“I think he has been punished enough,” Nayyah Shah said. “He was mad. I don’t believe it was anything more than an argument over my kid getting married to my family.”

Sabbir Shah apologized for his actions in a brief statement before sentencing.

“I am not the person it sounds like I am in these charges,” he said. “I was confused. ... I hope my wife and children will forgive me. I have no excuses.”

“I was wrong, and I am sorry.”

Contact Ryan Seals at 373-7077 or ryan.seals@news-record.com