{"id":61980,"date":"2025-08-12T16:22:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:22:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/61980\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:22:19","slug":"wisconsin-woman-found-guilty-in-u-k-murder-plot-6-years-after-trying-to-shoot-man-at-point-blank-range","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/61980\/","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin woman found guilty in U.K. murder plot 6 years after trying to shoot man at point-blank range"},"content":{"rendered":"

An American woman on Tuesday was found guilty at a United Kingdom court of participating in a 2019 plot to murder a British man caught up in a bitter feud between families.<\/p>\n

Aimee Betro, 45, was extradited<\/a> earlier this year from Armenia, where she was living, to face trial in the central English city of Birmingham.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors told the court Betro had covered her face in a niqab as she climbed out of a car in September 2019 and tried to shoot Sikander Ali at point-blank range.<\/p>\n

But the handgun jammed and Ali fled to his car parked outside his home.<\/p>\n

The investigation into the Wisconsin native revealed her to be “fairly unexceptional” with virtually no “criminal footprint,” the BBC reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

US woman convicted over failed assassination in UK https:\/\/t.co\/9eWlLvFH2N<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) August 12, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Betro was part of a plot with co-conspirators Mohammed Aslam, 56, and his son, Mohammed Nabil Nazir, 31, to attack another family.<\/p>\n

Both men were jailed for over 40 years<\/a> in 2024 for their roles in a “violent” feud which erupted after they were injured in a brawl at Ali’s father’s clothing store in July 2018.<\/p>\n

The feud between the families, Birmingham Crown Court heard, “clearly led Nazir and Aslam to conspire to have someone kill Aslat Mahumad or a member of his family,” the BBC reported. The pair turned to Betro \u2014 a woman not known by police “to have a huge footprint criminally” in the U.S. or anywhere, according to Officer Alastair Orencas from West Midlands Police’s major crime unit.<\/p>\n

Betro, a childhood development and graphic design graduate from West Allis, Wisconsin, arrived in the U.K. in August 2019 to carry out the hit, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n

“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,” said prosecutor Hannah Sidaway.<\/p>\n

The case had been brought to trial after “years of hard work doggedly pursuing Aimee Betro across countries and borders,” she added.<\/p>\n

Betro, who did not know Ali, denied three charges including conspiracy to murder and possessing a self-loading pistol.<\/p>\n

\"betro-screenshot-2025-08-12-092854.png<\/p>\n

Aimee Betro, pictured in a shop in Birmingham, was extradited to the U.K. from Armenia earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Police handout<\/p>\n

She maintained the real shooter was “another American woman” who sounded similar to her and had the same phone and brand of trainers.<\/p>\n

Betro told jurors it was “just a terrible coincidence” that she had been close to the scene of the attack.<\/p>\n

Police said they had seen no evidence that Betro was paid for her role in the attempted attack. She will be sentenced on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n