A suburban Indianapolis Military veteran was sentenced to 55 a long time in prison Wednesday for the road rage capturing death of a Muslim man just after witnesses stated he hurled ethnic and religious insults at the sufferer.
Dustin Passarelli of Plainfield was convicted in Could of murder and a felony firearm enhancement in the February 2019 capturing death of 32-calendar year-previous Mustafa Ayoubi.
Passarelli followed Ayoubi off Interstate 465, and a verbal altercation took position, prosecutors said. Witnesses claimed Passarelli manufactured many Islamophobic remarks, like “Go again to your state,” and used dislike speech ahead of opening fire.
Passarelli instructed police that Ayoubi possibly threw something at his car or truck or collided with it on the freeway and that following he adopted Ayoubi to an condominium advanced, Ayoubi broke one particular of Passarelli’s car windows with a punch.
The protection argued that Passarelli was inside his rights to hearth at Ayoubi mainly because it was self-defense.
Passarelli was not charged with a despise criminal offense. 6 weeks just after Ayoubi’s killing, Indiana lawmakers handed a detest crimes invoice that included a provision allowing judges to impose for a longer period sentences for crimes determined by bias.
Ayoubi came to the U.S. from Afghanistan as a refugee.
