Maricopa County jurors went home yesterday without reaching a verdict in the "honor killing" case of Glendale man Faleh Almaleki, who stands accused of killing his daughter Noor and seriously injuring a former family friend.
Defense attorneys for Almaleki did not argue during the trial that he is innocent of criminal wrongdoing in the bizarre October 2009 hit-and-run incident in a Peoria parking lot.
Instead, those attorneys pleaded with jurors to render a verdict of manslaughter rather than first or second-degree murder on the most serious of the charges, the killing of Almaleki's oldest child, with whom he was estranged.
The 50-year-old onetime truck driver also is facing numerous other major felonies, including the attempted murder of Amal Khalaf (Noor's friend, and a former friend of the Almaleki family) and fleeing the scene after he gunned down the pair with his Jeep Cherokee.
Stay tuned.
