LANSING, Mich. — Trial for the local woman accused of conspiring with her lover, Jacob Ficher, to have her husband killed has been postponed. Bdour Al-Yasari's trial was set for Monday, but Judge Joyce Draganchuk decided to set a later date at the request of Al-Yasari's defense.
Abood Law took on the year-long case in January and told the judge they needed more time to prepare and gather their own expert witnesses.
"It's important that Bdour is represented by competent legal counsel and that they're prepared. That's a constitutional right and that's one that we try and do with all our clients and this particular case, given the amount of evidence, specifically the evidence that has been coming in over the last couple weeks. It's important that it's fully evaluated and vetted by her defense counsel," said Attorney Andrew Abood.
The defense also asked the judge for certain evidence to be suppressed from the trial from an interview police conducted with Al-Yasari the night her husband Amar was found dead in their home.
"We believe she gave a statement in violation with her Miranda because the interrogating officer gave her bad legal advice and told her everything would remain confidential or would be confidential," said Abood.
That interrogating officer, a detective from the Ingham County Sheriff's Office, said on the stand Tuesday that he read Al- Yasari her Miranda rights and had a different understanding of the word 'confidential.'
"I explained to her that everything we said in that room is going to stay between her and I and if her parents or her family were to ask me about it I would defer right back to her," said Detective William Lo.
Transcripts from the interview show Al-Yasari said to Lo, "but my par..my family should not know. Anything I say is confidential and I don't give permission to anyone."
Abood also wants her cell phone that was taken as evidence that night, withheld.
"They took her cell phone without a warrant and we believe it was without probable cause," said Abood.
Detective Lo said he believed there was probable cause and because of how late it was, they would have been able to obtain a warrant before Al-Yasari left the station.
"For the preservation of the contents of that, just to have to make sure that it doesn't get altered or destroyed in any way," said Lo when asked why by the prosecutor.
The judge is expected to set a trial date and decide if the phone evidence will be thrown out at a hearing on Thursday.
Ficher, has already been convicted of the crime and sentenced to life without parole.
Ficher said he went to the house that day to threaten Amar and confront him about the abuse that his lover, Al-Yasari, told him about.
"She did want a divorce, but one of the things she discussed was how she felt in danger trying to leave him because he had threatened, on multiple occasions, that if she had tried to leave, he would kill her," Ficher said.
Ficher said Bdour turned off her home's security to let him inside so that he could confront her husband about the abuse while she was at work.
That's when Ficher said he realized that a simple conversation wasn't going to be enough.
"A discussion wasn't going to push him away from the actions that he was doing," Ficher said. "He needed to be scared, he needed to be really scared. I wanted him that scared. I wanted him to leave. Whether he ran to police or a different country, I just wanted him to be gone."
Ficher claims Amar arrived home, saw him and swung at him, which lead Ficher to fight back.
"I fired off two strikes with my right hand which was holding the ax," Ficher said in court. "All I could hear was my heartbeat and I just kept swinging, and kept swinging and kept swinging."
Ficher struck Amar 24 times with the ax.
Ficher said he then found a bottle of bleach in the pantry and poured it over the body, and then left through the front door.
He also got rid of his backpack that carried the murder weapon.
Ficher maintains that Bdour had no involvement.
During his sentencing, Al-Yasari's sister gave a statement saying Ficher "destroyed our lives."
"He destroyed my life. He destroyed my family. He destroyed the kids," Vahraa Al-Yasari said. "Amar he was a good guy. He never hurt anyone."
Ficher said he was sorry that his actions led to a man dying, and Bdour being separated from her two children.
He was also sentenced to pay $20,000 in restitution to Amar Al-Yasari's family, along with other fees to the state.
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