An Iraqi immigrant, upset that his wife wanted a divorce, killed her by hitting her at least six times in the head with a blunt object as she sat at a computer in their El Cajon home, a prosecutor said Tuesday, but the defendant's attorney said his client loved his spouse and had no motive to kill her.



Kassim Alhimidi, 49, is charged with murder in the March 2012 death of 32-year-old Shaima Alawadi, a mother of five.



"Shaima Alawadi was taken by surprise by someone she knew," Deputy District Attorney Kurt Mechals said in his closing argument.



The defendant said he was out for a drive when his wife was killed the morning of March 21, 2012, but surveillance video taken from a nearby school showed his van and a dark-clothed person coming and going in the area of the family home on Skyview Drive around the time the victim was attacked, Mechals told the jury.



Shaima Alawadi had told relatives she "couldn't stand" the defendant and had taken out divorce papers, the prosecutor said.



"The relationship was in the tank. It was bad," Mechals told the jury.


The couple's then-17-year-old daughter, Fatima, told police she was upstairs when she heard a "squeal," then later what sounded like a broken plate downstairs around 11 a.m. the day her mother was attacked. A pane from a sliding glass door had been broken from the inside, Mechals said.