Staff Report / August 20. 2025
A Tompkins County man will spend decades behind bars after being sentenced Tuesday for the murder of his wife in their Ithaca home.
Ahmed Abed, 44, was handed the maximum penalty of 25 years to life in state prison after being convicted in June of second-degree murder. Prosecutors said Abed admitted to killing his wife, 38-year-old Alaa Husein Jeena Abedi, on November 11, 2024. The couple’s four children were in the house when the attack occurred.
Three of those children spoke during the sentencing hearing, urging the court to impose the harshest sentence possible. Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said the case highlights the lasting devastation caused by domestic violence.
“Under the circumstances of this brutal and heinous murder, I strongly believe that the maximum sentence of 25 to life was the appropriate sentence and I am disappointed that the law does not allow me to ask for a greater sentence,” Van Houten said. “Abed’s cruel and senseless act of violence took away both parents from the children and caused them immeasurable pain that no court proceeding can ever come close to addressing.”
Abed will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years, though he could remain imprisoned for the rest of his life.
