SANFORD – Marriage has not been kind to Abdelhafid Rahmani, currently serving two life prison terms for murdering his first wife and her new husband.
First, there was wife No. 1 and No. 2. Same woman: Souad Bousserhan. They had divorced and remarried. She was still married to him when she married another man. Rahmani shot and killed them both in a jealous rage in their home near Winter Park in 1996.
Then came wife No. 3, Casilda Sanchez-Fernandez, a Deltona paralegal who married him following a jailhouse romance.
Rahmani wants to appeal his murder convictions, but in court Thursday he testified he missed the filing deadline because she hid from him all his case paperwork — something he must include with his appeal.
He's got solid proof. In a letter he filed with Circuit Judge Jessica Recksiedler, Sanchez-Fernandez threatened to burn Rahmani's trial transcript and other paperwork if he didn't sign divorce papers.
"You can kiss them good bye," she wrote in the letter Dec. 27, 2007.
He had milked her for $20,000 in legal expenses, according to court paperwork, plus a $300-a-month jail allowance. She also had bought him new teeth and glasses and paid $7,000 to help a niece go to college, she wrote.
He should be grateful, she wrote, but instead, had accused her of lying and stealing his money.
"How stupid can you be? … This was a marriage by papers only, but I gave you my heart, honesty, money, and look how you react…?"
Rahmani, 51, a native of Morocco, had married her in 2005 at the state prison in Chipley, where he was housed.
Their divorce, filed in Volusia County, was finalized in 2008. As part of that case, Circuit Judge S. James Foxman ordered Sanchez-Fernandez to give back Rahmani's paperwork. She did after several months, but by then the appeals deadline had passed.
Rahmani had an attorney between 2005 and 2007, the period during which he should have filed the appeal, but he testified he was not sure whether the lawyer was doing anything. Sanchez-Fernandez worked as a researcher for the lawyer, Rahmani testified, and had reassured him during that time gap that everything was fine.
Sanchez-Fernandez, in her early 60s, was unavailable for comment Friday.
Recksiedler said she would rule later.
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