Dustin Passarelli convicted of murdering Mustafa Ayoubi: Jurors on Wednesday convicted a former Army serviceman for murdering another driver in a road rage incident in which the defendant called the Prophet Muhammad a “pedophile.”
At least one witness suggested that the defendant, Dustin E. Passarelli, 37, targeted Mustafa Ayoubi, 32, because of the victim’s ethnicity. He was never charged in a hate crime, even in federal court. The state of Indiana did not have such a statute at the time of the Feb. 16, 2019 incident.
Dustin Passarelli (Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department), Mustafa Ayoubi (pictured in a tweet by his sister Zahra)Dustin Passarelli convicted of murdering Mustafa Ayoubi
Though Passarelli’s attorneys argued he acted in self-defense, prosecutors said that it was he who followed the victim off the 465 freeway, through a McDonald’s parking lot and into a residential area in order to instigate a confrontation, according to the IndyStar.
“He had a choice to leave,” deputy prosecutor Janna Skelton said, “and he stayed.”
