Ex-Marine convicted of killing pregnant girlfriend: ‘I did what I had to do’

After one day of deliberations, jurors in Orange County convicted a former Marine on Wednesday of first-degree murder in the slaying of his pregnant girlfriend.

Ahmad Rashad Siddiqi, 27, faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole at his sentencing scheduled for next month, according to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

In late 2011, Siddiqi was out of the Marines and living in Alexandria, Va., but he remained in a long-distance relationship with Soraya Faroqi, prosecutors said.

Faroqi, 24, had worked as a translator in Afghanistan and served as an interpreter for the U.S. military. On Dec. 13, 2011, Faroqi returned home to Orange County while in the first trimester of her pregnancy, prosecutors said. Siddiqi traveled from Virginia to see her and discuss the future of their relationship.

In the Westminster apartment of one of her friends on Dec. 19, Faroqi informed Siddiqi that she was pregnant and that another man was the child’s father, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Keith Burke said.

“He told her, ‘I want to be with you. I can accept the baby,’” Burke said. “She wouldn’t commit to staying with him.”

Siddiqi offered to show her the engagement ring he had purchased, which he kept in his car, but as he stood up from the couch to leave, a knife fell from his pocket, Burke said.

The friend recognized the 3-inch knife as one from her kitchen, but Siddiqi denied it, Burke said. The friend brought the knife back into her kitchen, but Siddiqi insisted the knife was his.

Siddiqi tried to get into the kitchen to grab the knife, but the friend blocked him. Eventually, he threw the woman aside and grabbed an 8-inch knife. He chased Faroqi, eventually pushing her into bushes and stabbing her at least 18 times, Burke said. Both Faroqi and her unborn child died.

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Prosecutors argued that Siddiqi had concealed the smaller knife all along and had planned to kill Faroqi. Siddiqi’s attorney, Lisa Eyanson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prosecutors originally filed an attempted murder charge against Siddiqi for killing the unborn baby, but that charge was dismissed after the judge concluded it was not legally feasible, Burke said. The child was in the embryonic stage of development, and in order to file a completed murder charge, the child has to be in the fetal stage, he said.

More than an hour after the slaying, according to prosecutors, Siddiqi was in a Huntington Beach hospital, where a witness recounted him stating his rationale: “Can I really say I’m sorry? No. Not at all. I did what I had to do...what I thought was right.”

Siddiqi is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 30.

For breaking news in California, follow @MattHjourno.

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