When a grieving widow had to recount the horror she endured at the hands of the man who took her husband’s life, the murderer kept smirking at her in court. Luckily, the judge wasn’t amused by his behavior and wiped the grin off his face for good.
Jamie Friedland and her husband Dustin had spent the day shopping at the mall before celebrating their anniversary with a dinner date. Little did they know that this would be their final anniversary together. When Jamie and Dustin returned to the parking lot to go home, the terror began.
They were ambushed by four men determined to steal the couple’s Range Rover at any cost. “I heard muffled talking,” Jamie testified in court during the trial of Basim Henry, one of the four assailants. “I turned around and saw Dustin standing with two men at both sides, one shorter and one taller. I saw a struggle. I saw the taller man put a gun to Dustin’s head. Then a shot went through the window,” she continued.
“I turned around and saw Dustin laying there in a pool of blood,” Jamie recalled. “I ran over to him, and I was screaming. I was screaming, ‘Stay with me.’ I saw him gasping for breath and his eyes looking at me.” As the grieving widow described her husband’s murder, Basim Henry smirked throughout the trial, and the judge noticed.
Jamie bravely continued her testimony. “He opens the car door, he leans in, he points the gun at my head and then he said get out the car you (expletive, expletive),” she said. “And I said, ‘OK, OK, I’m going, I’m going, I’m going.'” Those are the instructions that Henry allegedly gave Jamie immediately after her husband was shot and killed.
Jamie also made a victim impact statement, explaining how the crime affected her life forever. She fought back tears as she told the court about her everyday problems and how she gets nervous when she passes a mall or a parking deck. “You changed everything,” she said, looking straight at Henry. “It wasn’t just someone’s car. It was someone’s life.”
The widow told the court that her husband a perfect blend of “silly, generous, intelligent, and kindheartedness.” She said that their lives, souls, and hearts were interwoven. “Our beautiful life and future was taken away,” she added. “Our lives stopped that day. Each day, there is something that reminds me how fragile I am.”
The jury found Basim Henry guilty of murder, and Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin stated that Henry’s demeanor and remarks in court showed no remorse. In fact, the judge was enraged, appearing to take this case very personally when he handed down the sentence. “You stand there smiling,” Judge Ravin said to Henry. “I sentence you to state prison for the rest of your life!” he then added, but he wasn’t done.
“Most people who want nice things, they work for them,” Judge Ravin declared. “But you, Mr. Henry, you hunt. And, if some car owner stands between you and your prey – God help them.” Judge Ravin rendered his decision to sentence Henry to life plus 10 years on top, in part due to his long rap sheet, his “escalating criminal behavior,” his non-existent work history, and his failure to graduate from high school.
Rose Friedland, Dustin’s mother, also gave a victim impact statement, calling her son a “remarkable person” who practiced his faith and worked as a lifeguard at the Jersey Shore because he felt it was his job to help people in need. “There is no victory for us today,” Rose Friedland said. “Dustin will not be with us again, and there will be two mothers without their sons.”
At one point, Basim Henry tried to blame the judge, claiming he was being made a scapegoat. Henry told the court they were making an example of him and that he wasn’t “trippin’, to which Judge Ravin declared, “I don’t know what that means. But it doesn’t sound like remorse, that’s for sure.” Henry is required to serve 85 percent of his sentence and won’t be eligible for parole until after 68 years and 9 months when he would be 104 years old. That sounds like justice to me.
