BATON ROUGE - After eight years and numerous court delays, a Baton Rouge businessman who had three hitmen kill his wife back in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison.

Prosecutors said Hamid Ghassemi, 72, approached one of the hitmen in early 2015 and asked him to kill Teherah Ghassemi and their son Hamed. Teherah Ghassemi was killed in April 2015. Hamid Ghassemi was convicted of the crime in August of 2023.

"You maintain your innocence but I, along with 12 citizens have heard the evidence," Judge Tarvold Smith said at Ghassemi's sentencing Tuesday. "This was the most despicable thing a person can do to someone they claim, and I put emphasis on claim, to love."

At the sentencing, Ghassemi said, "It breaks my heart that I am being accused of something I didn't do. Tehareh and I loved each other."

Ghassemi's son Hamed was emotional as he refuted his father in court.

"The truth is this man could change the world by being a good person," Hamed Ghassemi said. "But he chose not to. Greed got to him and it's gotten him to where he is today."

Hamid Ghassemi paid $10,000 to have the men abduct and kill his wife, whose body was later found in a shallow grave in St. Helena Parish. Daniel Richter, one of the hitmen, said he buried her alone after Hamid Ghassemi had requested that he make it impossible for anyone to find her body.

One of the hitmen testified that Ghassemi had his wife killed because she was scheduled to return to Iran, and he feared he wouldn't see his money again.

All three hitmen — Richter, Skyler Williams and Tyler Ashpaugh, — pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Ashpaugh received a 40-year term after acknowledging in 2018 that he shot the woman. He died in prison this year.