Man Jailed For Drowning 2 Autistic Sons At Pier To Collect Life Insurance

A Los Angeles man has been jailed for intentionally driving his ex-wife along with his two sons off a pier, drowning the boys to collect the life insurance, federal prosecutors said.

Ali Elmezayen, 45, was sentenced Thursday to 212 years in prison for murdering his two severely autistic in a staged accident in April 2015.

The court imposed the maximum sentencing allowed by law citing Elmezayen’s “evil and diabolical scheme” and the “vicious and callous nature of his crimes,” according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release.

Investigators found Elmezayen had bought more than $3 million worth of life and accidental death insurance policies on himself and his family from eight different insurance companies during the period between July 2012 to March 2013.

Elmezayen had reportedly paid an annual premium of over $6,000 on these policies when his annual income was under $30,000 a year on his tax returns. He had bought the life insurance policies the same year he had left a chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding, the release said.

Investigators found Elmezayen had repeatedly called the insurance companies to verify the policies were active and they would pay benefits in the event of accidental death. In some of his calls, he posed as his ex-wife whose name was also on the policies.

The court found out he had also called at least two of the insurance companies to confirm they would not investigate claims made two years after the policies were purchased.

On April 9, 2015, Elmezayen drove a car with his ex-wife and two youngest children off a wharf at the Port of Los Angeles. The investigators discovered this was just 12 days after the two-year contestability period on the last of his insurance policies expired.

Elmezayen escaped from the drowning car through the open driver’s window. The couple’s sons, 8-year-old Abdelkrim and 13-year-old Elhassan, were strapped into the car and drowned, reported local news outlet KTLA. His ex-wife who did not know swimming managed to escape the car. She was rescued by a few fishermen who threw her a flotation device.

The prosecutors told the court Elmezayen had collected around $260,000 in insurance money from his sons’ policies, which he used to buy a boat and real estate.

Along with the jail sentencing, the court ordered Elmezayen to pay $261,751 in restitution to the insurance companies.

Elmezayen had been convicted in October 2019 for four counts of mail fraud, four counts of wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and five counts of money laundering.

“He is the ultimate phony and a skillful liar…and is nothing more than a greedy and brutal killer,” Judge Walter said during the sentencing Thursday. “The only regret that the defendant has is that he got caught.”

“Fathers are supposed to protect their children but instead, Elmezayen drove his boys straight to their certain death in exchange for cash,” Kristi Johnson, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office said. “The defendant maliciously planned the death of his autistic sons and gave them virtually no chance of survival. The investigation that led to today's sentencing won’t give them their lives, but affords them justice in death,” Johnson added.