A besotted American woman who flew to the UK to shoot dead a man’s rival in a bid to win his affection after falling for him online has been convicted of conspiracy to murder.
Aimee Betro, 45, wore a niqab in an attempt to disguise her appearance before blasting Sikander Ali, 33, at close range outside his house in September 2019.
He only survived as the gun jammed and he managed to escape in his car but undeterred Betro then returned hours later to fire three shots through the window of his family home.
Miraculously, no one was injured and Betro was able to return to America and then on to Armenia – spending five years on the run before she was eventually tracked down by the Daily Mail and arrested.
She carried out the failed hit for thug Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who she said she was in love with despite the pair meeting just a three times before she tried to kill for him.
Nazir and his father Mohammed Aslam, 57, have both already been jailed for their part in the bizarre plot, which followed a row between two Asian families over wedding clothes and escalated into the assassination attempt in a Birmingham cul-de-sac.
Betro, who wore pink Converse trainers and her hair in two ‘space buns’ during her trial at Birmingham Crown Court, had denied the charges, claiming she was elsewhere at the time of the shootings and another ‘American woman who sounded similar, used the same phone and had the same trainers’ carried out the botched hit.
She said it was just a ‘terrible coincidence’ she was caught on CCTV around the corner six minutes later.
Betro, wearing a dark purple T-shirt and with her hair in space buns on top of her head, showed no emotion and started at the jury with her arm across her chest as the verdicts were delivered on Tuesday.
Judge Simon Drew KC said she would be sentenced on Thursday at the same court.
Aimee Betro, now 45, in a social media post, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder
Betro wore a niqab in an attempt to disguise her appearance before blasting Sikander Ali, 33, at close range outside his house
A black glove with Betro’s DNA was found inside the Mercedes used in the shooting
Jurors deliberated for almost 21 hours before convicting her of conspiracy to murder, possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, and a charge related to the alleged importation of ammunition into the UK after hearing her DNA was found in a glove inside the car used in the shooting and on gun parts posted to another of Nazir’s rivals in a bid to frame him.
She was found guilty by majority 11-verdicts on the conspiracy to murder and firearm charges, and by a unanimous verdict on the ammunition charge.
Betro has never given her account to police because she was extradited under a ‘red notice’ she was immediately charged and remanded in custody rather than arrested and interviewed before being charged.
But Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas from West Midlands Police’s major crime unit said her motivation was likely because she was ‘in love or infatuated with Nazir’.
He said it was only through a poor weapon or poor ammunition or user error that Mr Ali is not dead.
‘It would have been a point blank discharge of a self loading pistol,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘I have no doubt whatsoever that if that gun had discharged at that point he would have died.
‘It strikes me that it was a well planned, persistent, murderous attempt to take someone’s life.’
CCTV showing the shooter with gun drawn in Measham Grove, Birmingham
The gun used in the shooting was a rare American Hi-point c9 pistol – which has not been seen by experts in this country either before or after the attempted murder.
Betro seen on CCTV at McDonalds after the day after the shooting
Later in the night Betro returned to the scene and fired three shots through the window of Ali’s family home
Born West Allis in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Betro’s parents separated when she was young and she left school at 17, working in shops and restaurants before attending two technical colleges and getting degrees in early childhood education and graphic design respectively.
She met Nazir, who lived in Derby and who was 13 years her junior, on a dating app in September 2018 when he was using the name ‘Dr Ice’.
She soon started planning a planning a two-week trip to the UK to celebrate her graduation, and New Year’s Eve, arriving in London on Christmas Day 2018, staying in an AirBnB at King’s Cross where she spent the night with Nazir.
In May 2019, Betro visited the UK again to attend drum and bass music events – but didn’t meet up with Nazir.
However, the pair did keep in touch upon her return to Wisconsin via messages and video calls on Snapchat.
Asked by her defence barrister Paul Lewis what she ‘thought of him’, Betro replied: ‘He was very charming and I did like him. He was sweet, and I did have feelings for him.’
She returned to the UK again in August 2019 – this time to do Nazir’s ‘bidding’ and try to kill his rival.
Jurors were told that after arriving in the UK Betro travelled around before booking into the Rotunda hotel in Birmingham, where on September 6 she phoned clothes shop owner Aslat Mahumad, claiming she wanted to buy the car he was selling online.
Mr Walkling said: ‘Mr Mahumad recalls being called by a woman with an American accent… He was confused, as he hadn’t listed his number online.
‘The woman said she wanted to buy the car today, but Mr Mahumad said she could see it tomorrow.
‘As I’m sure you have guessed, ladies and gentlemen, we say the woman with the American accent was this defendant, Aimee Betro, and that she was calling Mr Mahumad as a pretext to set up a chance to kill him.
‘And who else could it be? She had the phone she bought it only hours before.’
Aimee Betro as a young girl in pictures shared by her mother Jeanne Johnson
Betro, now 45, seen buying a ‘dirty’ mobile phone used to organise the failed hit
One of the bullets found in Ali’s family home after Betro fired at his house on September 7, 2019
The bullets fired by Betro entered the upstairs bedrooms of the property, with two embedding themselves in the ceiling of one room
When her plan to lure Mr Mahumad out failed, she bought Mercedes E240 from a garage in Alum Rock.
Mr Walkling told jurors the garage owner said he ‘sold it to someone he described, perhaps unkindly, as a short, fat woman, who spoke with an American accent, wore a summer dress, and had a bag over her shoulder’.
He said: ‘Helpfully you can see still images of what Betro wore when she went out that day. A fitting if unflattering match to the description [he] gave.’
Mr Walkling said the same car was later driven to Measham Grove, the scene of the shooting.
He said: ‘It’s the car in which the would-be assassin waited, and its the car from which she emerged to try and kill Sikander Ali.’
Mr Ali was the son of Mr Mahumad.
The Mercedes was later seen at the entrance to Measham Grove. Mr Walkling said the driver ‘appears to be wearing a face-covering, a niqab’.
He said at 7.22pm Betro drove onto Measham Grove and waited for her target.
At 9.10pm Sikander Ali pulled onto Measham Grove in his black SUV – which was caught on camera.
In video footage played to the court, Betro, can be seen approaching the SUV and firing but the gun jams.
CCTV shows the shooter approach Mr Ali’s car as he pulls up with her gun drawn
Mr Ali is able to reverse away at speed, clipping the Mercedes’ door as he does. The court was told the collision bent the the door badly enough that it wouldn’t close, and Betro had to drive away with the door half open.
She later dumped the Mercedes and changed her clothes. Police found a black glove with Betro’s DNA inside.
Betro then sent text messages to her intended target, the court was told. Screenshots of the texts were shown to the jury.
She said to him: ‘Where are you hiding? followed by ‘Stop playing hide and seek you are lucky it jammed’.
Betro then called another taxi to take her back to Measham Grove. Jurors were shown CCTV of a figure matching Betro’s description firing three shots into the family home.
‘Ladies and gentlemen the gun didn’t jam that time did it?’ Mr Walkling said.
Jurors were shown pictures of the damage the bullets caused. She flew back to the US the following day from Manchester Airport. Nazir flew out to join her three days later.
While in the US they travelled around visiting various places including LA, San Francisco and Seattle as well as visiting a theme park and Area 51 in Nevada.
She said they did not discuss what had happened in Birmingham. The court heard Nazir and his father’s bank records were examined and there was no record of any payments to Betro.
Nazir was arrested on his return to the UK. He and his father were jailed last.
Nazir was sentenced to 32 years for conspiracy to murder while Mohammed Aslam, 56, was told he would serve 10 years.
CCTV of Betro checking into a hotel
She had carried out the failed hit for thug Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, who she admitted to being in love with despite the pair meeting just twice before she tried to kill for him.
Nazir and his father Mohammed Aslam, 57, (pictured above) have both already been jailed for their part in the bizarre plot, which followed a row between two Asian families over wedding clothes and escalated into an assassination attempt in a Birmingham cul-de-sac.
The court heard the two men wanted revenge after brawl at a clothes shop in Birmingham led to Aslam suffering significant brain injuries.
The father and son had travelled to Sehar Boutique in 2018 to buy clothes but a fight broke out when they complained about the quality.
They plotted to kill shop owner Mohamad Aslat using Betro as the ‘hitwoman’.
Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas said: Our main hypothesis is that it is retribution for that significant injury to them and whatever wrongdoing they felt they had financially around any clothing.’
Betro remained on the run until the Daily Mail tracked her down to her hideaway in Armenia.
The Mail told West Midlands Police about her location on June 15 last year and agreed to a news blackout until she was arrested to avoid her fleeing again before she could be extradited back to the UK.
Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas said it was a ‘significant development’ adding: ‘I would like to put it on formal record and thank the Daily Mail for the information that they kindly shared with us.’
It can also now also be revealed victim Sikander Ali, 33, is also in jail, after police investigating the hit discovered he was a drug dealer.
Ali gave a statement to police after he was shot at but then refused to sign it or give evidence at Nazir and Aslam’s trial. The 33 year-old was a wholesale dealer, who admitted supplying at least 14kg worth half a million pounds to cocaine to buyers in the West Midlands.
Ali used the notorious Encrochat encrypted mobile phone network to sell drugs. He also admitted borrowing a .38 handgun from a fellow Encrochat user for his ‘own protection’.
Ali, still of Measham Grove, was arrested in January 2023 trying to fly to Dubai from Birmingham Airport. He was sentenced in August last year to 13 years, six months after admitting conspiracy to supply cocaine and transferring a firearm.
Specialist Prosecutor Hannah Sidaway OBE, from the Crown Prosecution Service in the West Midlands, said after the verdicts were delivered: ‘This prosecution is a culmination of years of hard work doggedly pursuing Aimee Betro across countries and borders while she remained relentless in her bid to escape justice.
‘Betro tried to kill a man in a Birmingham street at point-blank range. It is sheer luck that he managed to get away unscathed.
‘The prosecution case included incriminating CCTV footage from the scene of the crime, digital forensics, mobile phone data and evidence collated from cooperation and collaboration across multiple countries and criminal justice agencies – from West Midlands Police, Derbyshire Constabulary to the Federal Bureau of Investigation – all of which pointed to one culprit.
‘Only Betro knows what truly motivated her or what she sought to gain from becoming embroiled in a crime that meant she travelled hundreds of miles from Wisconsin to Birmingham to execute an attack on a man she did not know.
‘The jury clearly agreed this was a planned hit which failed.
‘Dangerous firearms have no place in our communities, and the use of them has all too often led to devastating consequences. Aimee Betro will now have to face the consequences of her actions.’
