Ex-Wife Ordered To Stand Trial In Killing of Doctor Outside Valley Clinic

LOS ANGELES, CA — The ex-wife of a doctor gunned down outside his Woodland Hills clinic in an alleged murder-for-hire plot was ordered Thursday to stand trial on a murder charge along with the alleged gunman, but a judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to require two other people to stand trial in the killing.

Following a hearing that stretched over portions of three days, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Eleanor Hunter ordered Ahang Mirshojae, now 54, of Calabasas, and Evan Hardman, now 42, of Tomball, Texas, to remain jailed without bail after finding enough evidence for the two to proceed to trial on the murder charge and two special circumstance allegations -- murder for financial gain and murder while lying in wait -- for the Aug. 23, 2024, killing of her former husband, Dr. Hamid Mirshojae, 61.

But the judge did not find enough evidence to support the murder charge against two other defendants, Sarallah Jawed, now 28, of Canoga Park, and Ashley Rose Sweeting, now 41, of Reseda -- the latter of whom had pleaded not guilty minutes earlier to the newly filed murder count and special circumstance allegations against her.

Attorneys for Jawed and Sweeting argued that their clients had no advance knowledge of the alleged murder plot, with each of the two hugging their lawyers after the hearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

Jawed was ordered along with Hardman to stand trial on a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon involving an alleged attack May 3 on the same victim, while the judge found sufficient evidence to order Sweeting to proceed to trial on one count of being an accessory after the fact for allegedly driving Hardman to and from the crime scene the day of the killing.

The judge noted that much of the case presented by the prosecution relied on a statement from Hardman, who told Los Angeles Police Department detectives that Jawed and Sweeting did not know in advance about the killing and that they had each told detectives the same thing.

"You have to take the good with the bad," Hunter told prosecutors of their reliance on Hardman's account.

Hardman told detectives after being arrested in Texas by an FBI fugitive task force that Ahang Mirshojae had initially offered to pay him $20,000 to assault her ex-husband and rob him of two watches that had great sentimental value to her, in an attack in which the victim was not seriously injured and the watches were not located, according to LAPD Detective Benyamin Sadeh, who said the defendant told him he was paid half of the agreed-upon amount and that Ahang Mirshojae was unhappy with the outcome because "what was promised wasn't delivered."

Hardman told detectives that Jawed had allegedly posed as a homeless person during the May 2024 attack to create a distraction, Sadeh said.

Hardman told investigators that Ahang Mirshojae said of her ex-husband during a subsequent meeting in Agoura Hills, "I want to take him down ... I want to take him all the way out," and offered him about $400,000, according to the detective.

"He (Hardman) said, `You want me to kill him?"' the detective testified, noting that Hardman told him that she replied, "Yes."

Hardman told investigators that he didn't want to talk about the actual shooting itself, according to the detective.

LAPD Detective Israel Lopez testified that Hamid Mirshojae was found on the ground next to his white SUV in the parking lot of a small commercial plaza in the 5900 block of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

An autopsy determined that he had died of a gunshot wound to the head, Lopez said, noting that surveillance video showed an assailant running up to the victim as he walked to his car, then running away.

Authorities said the victim was ambushed as he walked to his vehicle in the parking lot outside his clinic.

According to police, when the victim approached the driver's side of his vehicle, "a masked man emerged from hiding around the corner of the clinic and ran toward him. From a close distance, the suspect fired at Dr. Mirshojae in an ambush-style attack and then immediately fled back toward the rear of the clinic away from the scene."

Deputy District Attorney Ben Schwartz has previously called Hamid Mirshojae's killing "an assassination."

The four defendants have remained behind bars since being taken into custody in December 2024.

In the December 2024 interview, Hardman told police that Ahang Mirshojae was "super excited as if she had won the Super Bowl" after her ex- husband's shooting and "gave him a bag with money" during a meeting in Canoga Park, according to Sadeh.

Hardman said the initial payment was supposed to be $50,000, but that he believed it was "actually less, and that he was to be paid the remainder when things calmed down," the detective testified, noting that Hardman said he gave Ahang Mirshojae parts of the gun and discarded other parts of the weapon in two separate locations.

Hardman told investigators that he subsequently went with Jawed to a casino, where they gambled "a significant amount of money," according to the detective.

Hardman said Ahang Mirshojae called him after her son lost a $5,000 chess game against him while at a bar, telling the young man that he could get his cell phone, jewelry and clothing back by calling his own phone and paying $1,000, the detective testified.

Hardman told investigators that the woman told him she wasn't going to give him the money but that he could earn a lot of money if he worked for her. She told him that otherwise she could go to the police with the surveillance video from a break-in that resulted in him being fired from his job as a security guard at a business in the same complex as the victim's medical practice, according to the detective.

He said the woman first asked him to evict a tenant from one of her other properties, eventually directing him to attack her former husband, the detective added.

Hardman was initially reluctant to speak to detectives after his arrest, expressing fear over what might happen to his pregnant girlfriend, Lopez testified.

Jawed -- who allegedly drove Hardman to Texas after the killing -- told police after his arrest that he knew Ahang Mirshojae had issues with her ex-husband and that she was very jealous because he was very happy with his new wife and child, according to Sadeh.

The District Attorney's Office has not yet announced whether it will seek the death penalty against Ahang Mirshojae and Hardman. They remain jailed without bail, with a bail review hearing set Monday for her.

All four defendants are due back in court for arraignment July 9.

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
City News Service