A local cigar shop owner has been arrested by Phoenix police and accused of trying to hire a hitman to assassinate his wife, plus her parents and 17-year-old sister.
Dimitri Rozenman of Mesa had been upset at the terms of his divorce (recently finalized) when he planned the murders, police say. He's been charged with four counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and one count of criminal damage.
According to a report by KTAR (92.3 FM), court records show Rozenman had been ordered to pay his wife $475,000.
The wife, a 23-year-old, has parents barely older than Rozenman, who's 38 -- and she's the mother of the couple's twin daughters.
In what sounds like one of those "undercover-cop-posing-as-hitman" tales, police say Rozenman was led to believe his family had been wiped out but never tried to contact authorities about the supposed murders.
Rozenman's company, Cigar Warehouse, has locations in Mesa, Phoenix and Scottsdale. Five years ago, the cigar-meister bragged to a magazine that his company was one of the top 10 tobacco retailers in the United States. In a comment he left on an online forum, Rozenman says he also operates www.tntcigars.com, an Internet retailer.
.
