Left: Omar Drabick. Right: Hadeel Hikmat (Chatham County Sheriff's Office).
A North Carolina man is headed to prison for decades after he shot his wife in the back and threw her body into a lake from a bridge — all because he wanted to escape their arranged marriage.
Omar Matthew Ibrahim Drabick, 37, was sentenced to 25 to 31 years in prison for second-degree murder and six to nine years for concealing the death of his wife Hadeel Ghadhanfer Hikmat, 34, in Apex, North Carolina. The sentences will run consecutively. Drabick was originally facing a first-degree murder charge.
A boater on Aug. 29, 2023, found Hikmat's body in Jordan Lake, which is roughly 30 miles west of Raleigh. Authorities found shell casings, blood and the victim's jewelry on a nearby bridge and determined Drabick fatally shot his wife in the back and tossed her into the water below.
Cops later learned Hikmat arrived in the U.S. roughly a year prior after Drabick's mother arranged a marriage between her son and the victim, according to a courtroom report from the Raleigh News & Observer.
But Drabick soon soured on the marriage and began looking for ways to get out of it. A warrant reviewed by Law&Crime says Drabick wished his wife would run off with a rich man.
On the night of her murder, Drabick picked his wife up from a Walmart where she worked and the two went to eat at a Denny's. Drabick told a friend that the two then went to a park around 2 a.m. where they met a man from Iraq who drove a van. The now-convicted murderer told his friend that the man kissed his wife and said Hikmat "should not be with the man with nothing and needed to be with someone who had money," cops wrote.
Drabick claimed his wife left with the man in the van. His friend told cops that Drabick's story did not make sense and believed it to be untrue.
Authorities determined Drabick drove his wife to the bridge for their fatal encounter shortly after 2:30 a.m. Aug. 29, 2023. According to the News & Observer, Drabick had recently bought the gun used to kill his wife. He also reportedly searched his phone for ways to get away with murder. Investigators discovered Hikmat's blood on Drabick's shoes and in the trunk of his car.
Prosecutor Marci Trageser said at sentencing that the situation between Drabick and the victim spiraled out of control.
"There is no one, I think, in this courtroom or even listening [who] could ever have predicted what would happen and why it would happen," she told the court, per the News & Observer.
Drabick's mother said she bore some responsibility for the tragedy as she's the one who set up the marriage. But the judge felt otherwise.
"I don't see that anyone goes into [arranged marriages] thinking of this as a result," Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour said, the newspaper reported. "So while I can appreciate the feeling of responsibility, I don't think it's a burden that you should bear."
Defense attorneys said their client had autism and lacked the social skills needed to end the marriage peacefully.
When asked if he wanted to address the court, Drabick reportedly said: "From the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry."
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