The personal assistant of a tech entrepreneur, previously accused of dismembering his boss in 2020, has now confessed to beheading the victim, citing a ‘crime of passion,’ as stated by his lawyer.
Saleh’s cousin stumbled upon the decapitated and dismembered body of 33-year-old Fahim Saleh when he visited the tech entrepreneur’s upscale Manhattan apartment.
Tyrese Haspil, who managed Saleh’s financial affairs and personal affairs, was taken into custody during the initial investigation, with allegations that he owed his employer a substantial sum of money.
Haspil allegedly embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Saleh and was motivated to keep this secret from his French girlfriend, Marine Chaveuz, fearing it would lead to their breakup. His defense team has presented this argument, as reported by The New York Post.
In order to maintain secrecy, the 25-year-old assistant forcibly entered Saleh’s $2.4 million Lower East Side apartment.
Subsequently, he incapacitated Saleh with a taser before fatally stabbing him, as revealed by Haspil’s defense attorney, Sam Roberts, during the trial at the Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, May 24th.
Sam Roberts is arguing before the 12-member jury that his client’s actions were driven by an ‘extreme emotional disturbance,’ ultimately resulting in the murder of Saleh.
Facing the revelation that he had stolen almost $400,000 from Saleh, Haspil decided to prevent his girlfriend from discovering the truth. He weighed two options: suicide or homicide, ultimately choosing the latter, as alleged by prosecutors.
In January 2020, Saleh, the CEO of Nigeria-based motorbike startup Gokada, discovered that $90,000 was missing from a corporate spending account.
He confronted Haspil, his personal assistant, about the stolen money. Despite tracing the funds back to Haspil, Saleh chose not to press charges. Instead, he devised a payment plan for the 25-year-old to repay the debt.
Despite being caught stealing from Saleh’s company through a PayPal account, Haspil grew increasingly fearful of prosecution. He meticulously researched and planned how to escape the consequences, as prosecutors informed the jurors.
Prosecutors provided a detailed account of the murder: Haspil, masked, first tasered Saleh and then fatally stabbed him. The following day, he dismembered the victim’s body, including removing the head.
Afterward, Haspil attempted to clean up, but his efforts fell short. Notably, he failed to vacuum up an “anti-felon disk” identification tag, which investigators later found at the crime scene.
The tag bore a unique number that corresponded to the taser Haspil had ordered and had delivered to his Brooklyn address a month prior to the murder, as reported by The New York Post, citing the prosecutors.
Upon checking on him after several days of no communication, Saleh’s cousin discovered his torso exposed in the living room of his condominium, alongside construction bags.
Despite facing first-degree murder charges, Tyrese Haspil maintains his plea of not guilty. If convicted, he could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years to life in jail.
His lawyer, Sam Roberts, emphasized that Haspil’s life has been shaped by trauma, beginning with a difficult childhood where he suffered years of abuse at the hands of his schizophrenic mother.
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