El Cajon : Murder Trial Ordered in 5 Shooting Deaths

Toufic (Tom) Naddi has been ordered by a Municipal Court judge to stand trial in the fatal June 1 shootings of his wife and four of her relatives.

The 44-year-old Fletcher Hills man is scheduled to be arraigned on five counts of murder with special circumstances Oct. 18 in Superior Court.

Defense attorney Milly Durovic argued during a two-day preliminary hearing that the prosecution failed to prove malice or forethought on Naddi’s part, making it a manslaughter case “at best.”

But Judge Wayne L. Peterson said, “The methodical manner in which the defendant must have engaged to effect five deaths, with apparently at least four of the five sleeping, meets the requirements, for preliminary hearing purposes, for premeditation and deliberation.”

Neil Nicastro, a friend of Naddi’s, testified Thursday that Naddi told him on the morning of the killings that he was getting a divorce from his wife, Aida, 26, because of an incestuous relationship between her and her father, Habbib Sabbagh, 73, a Jordanian businessman.

Naddi is charged with killing them; Sabbagh’s wife, Lillian, 58; his son, Michael, 38, and son-in-law, Osama Mashimi, 38, a well-known Jordanian actor-comedian.

Autopsy reports show that all five victims died of gunshot wounds to the head from a .22-caliber rifle, which was found at the home.

Three of the bodies were found on beds or couches in the upstairs part of the house, one on the floor next to a couch and one in a downstairs bedroom.

On June 1, Naddi called El Cajon police to say he had just killed his relatives.

During that 30-minute call, a tape of which was played by Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Pippin, Naddi claimed that his wife’s family “came from Jordan to kill me. They came from Jordan to take my children.”

Later in the sometimes-rambling conversation, Naddi said his wife “has been molested by her father. . . . They (her family) came from Jordan to take away my wife and children.”