CAPE COLRAL MAN SENTENCED TO 65 YEARS FOR VIOLENT ATTACK ON WOMAN
By KRISTEN ZAMBO
December 18, 2004
A former East Naples music store owner may spend the rest of his life behind bars for sexually mutilating a woman he thought was a government spy who was having illicit affairs.
Dahish A. Rashid, 57, of Cape Coral, was sentenced Friday to 65 years in prison for the Jan. 8, 2002, attack on the Lee County woman.
He was convicted in October of mutilating her genitals with a utility knife, slicing off her right nipple and areola and cutting out a hunk of her tongue as punishment for these suspected affairs.
Rashid's lawyer, Christopher Haddad, said he suffers from mental illnesses; although doctors differ on which mental illnesses afflict him and Rashid didn't understand the crime he was committing when he drove her to an isolated area, handcuffed her, taped bags over the van's windows and started slicing.
"I think that (the sentence) reflects the severity of what he did"; Assistant State Attorney Betsy Biffl said outside of the courtroom.
Senior Judge Jack Schoonover sentenced Rashid to 30 years, 20 years and 15 years, to run consecutively, on charges of kidnapping while possessing a firearm, sexual battery with a deadly weapon or great force and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Haddad wanted a much lighter sentence, followed by mental health therapy. "We're disappointed in the sentence," stated Haddad outside the courtroom. He said he planned to appeal both the verdict and sentence. He declined further comment. Rashid's family also declined comment.
The victim, whose name is not being released because of the nature of the crime, did not attend the hearing. Biffl said the woman still lives out of state, where she has been hiding since the attack.
"She was comfortable leaving it to the court," Biffl said. "She came here and she said everything she had to say at the trial."
According to Florida sentencing laws, Rashid must spend the first 10 years in prison and 85 percent of the remaining 55 years, or 46 years and nine months, behind bars.
"I really apologize for what I did," Rashid told Schoonover before sentencing in the first public comments he's made since being charged. "I am sorry for the devastation for my family and for me and for (the woman). I will take my medication." Biffl noted that Rashid's appeal for mercy by apologizing came much too late. "He has to say whatever he can to get the court to go below the (sentencing) guidelines,"Biffl said. "This was a planned incident. With her by his side, he stopped and bought the duct tape and razor blades."
During the four-day trial, jurors heard that Rashid and the woman left that day in his GMC Savana van under the guise of going house hunting in Naples. After eating at a local doughnut shop, they went to a Home Depot, where Rashid bought the duct tape, utility blades and cleaning supplies. He drove her to a rest stop at Daniels Parkway and Interstate 75 and asked her to have sex with him in the back of the van. Instead, he taped bags over the windows, handcuffed her, drove to a more isolated area somewhere between Naples and south Fort Myers and attacked her.
During the trial, the woman testified that he forced her at gunpoint to stick out her tongue so he could cut part of it out. "Had this man not been suffering from this mental illness ... this awful matter would not have happened," Haddad said.
Rashid's daughter, Rashida Ahmad, testified at the sentencing hearing that her father needs medication and mental health treatment, not a lengthy prison stint. She said she and her siblings were used to her father's abnormal behavior, such as thinking the government was spying on him and trees were watching him. She said he sometimes still talks about conspiracies, but he's much calmer now on medication.
"It's very sad because of the effect on the family," Ahmad said of the crime. "I don't like to talk about it. He said he was sorry."
S/B CAPE CORAL