ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The fate of a man charged with shooting his girlfriend in the head and leaving her to die in an Anchorage ditch is in the hands of jurors.
Bukurim Miftari is charged with kidnaping and first-degree murder in the death of Kristen Reid, 30, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.
“This is a case about a 21-year-old in love with a 30-year-old married woman, who didn’t return the love he wanted, expressed or needed,” District Attorney Sharon Marshall said.
A passer-by early on Sept. 17, 2012, reported Miftari’s sport utility vehicle parked in the middle of a Fairbanks Street near a strip club. The SUV was stained with blood. Police found Reid severely injured and nearly naked nearby in a ditch. She had been shot in the head.
Miftari, then 21, had been in a relationship with Reid, a drug dealer, for nine months.
The night before she was mortally wounded, according to police, she attended the strip club, spoke to other men and gave out her phone number, which would have been part of her business dealings, Marshall said.
Miftari was also there and a witness told police he seemed “agitated.”
They left separately, and Reid went to a friend’s home. Miftari appeared and kidnapped her before she had a chance to put her shoes on, Marshall said.
Reid’s purse, containing cocaine, was found in a commercial trash container near the SUV, along with cash, her shirt and other items.
Defense attorney Rex Butler told jurors that prosecutors had not proved Miftari was guilty. Reid could have been killed because of her drug dealing, he said, but prosecutors never considered other suspects.
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