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Bench trial starts Monday for Columbia man accused of conspiracy to murder

Mehrdad Fotoohighiam
Boone County Sheriff's Department
Mehrdad Fotoohighiam

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been corrected to say Fotoohighiam was accused of conspiring to kill his ex-wife.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A bench trial began Monday for a Columbia man accused of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in a plot to kill his ex-wife.

Mehrdad Fotoohighiam is charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, assault, tampering with a witness in a felony prosecution and attempting to tamper with a witness in a felony prosecution.

The court determined it will use a translator to translate from Farsi to English for the first witness as the parties went through a flurry of pretrial motions. Opening arguments started a little after 10 a.m.

According to online court records, Fotoohighiam was charged with first-degree murder conspiracy and first-degree assault in 2017.

Fotoohighiam was previously acquitted by a jury of setting a mobile home in Columbia on fire in 2014. But he was ordered to pay the owner almost $3 million dollars in a lawsuit filed after the fire.

Investigators say Fotoohighiam paid two men $500 each to set fire to his neighbor, Marcia Green's home, with whom he had a property dispute. Green was inside the home at the time and was significantly hurt in the fire.

While in jail, Fotoohighiam was accused of plotting to kill Boone County Judge Jeff Harris. Harris originally ordered Fotoohighiam back to jail after he posted a $5 million dollar bond in 2015 after he was arrested on suspicion of arson.

Judge Harris said Fotoohighiam violated the conditions of his release by asking a third party to contact his ex-wife about his medication.

Fotoohighiam was previously scheduled to have his trial start on March 28 but it was canceled and a bench trial was set for Monday. The trial is planned to start around 9:30 a.m. on Monday at the Boone County Courthouse under visiting Judge Steven Ohmer.

In a new court document filed in March, prosecutors charged Fotoohighiam with conspiring to kill his ex-wife, but the charge related to Harris was dropped.

Article Topic Follows: Crime

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Meghan Drakas

Meghan joined ABC 17 News in January 2021.
The Penn State grad is from the Philadelphia suburbs where she interned with several local TV stations.

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