A Virginia inmate who was released from jail because of the Coronavirus pandemic is back in police custody for allegedly murdering his accuser.
Ibrahm Elkahlil Bouaichi, a 33-year-old man who was arrested for allegedly raping his ex-girlfriend Karla Elizabeth Dominguez Gonzalez in October 2019 and held without bond, was arrested Wednesday morning for shooting and killing Gonzalez on July 29.
When Bouaichi was first arrested on October 21, 2019, he was charged with six felonies: abduction, burglary, malicious wounding, rape, strangulation, and sodomy.
Per Virginia law involving violent crimes, he was held without bail.
Bouaichi was indicted by a grand jury on all charges except malicious wounding on January 13. His court date was set to March 30.
However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, his court case was pushed back to May 4.
Bouaichi’s lawyers, Manuel Leiva and Frank Salvato, argued that because of the health risks COVID-19 presented to inmates and counselors, their client should be released on bond.
They claimed that the detention center “imposed severe restrictions on visitation” because of the outbreak, restricting meetings with their client to 30-minute video conferences, according to the bond hearing.
The Washington Post reports that jail officials “do allow contact visits for attorneys upon request” and that they “do not have any record of Mr. Leiva or his co-counsel requesting a face-to-face visit with Ibrahim Bouaichi after the protocols went into effect in late March.”
Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Nolan Dawkins, who retired in June, agreed and released Bouaichi on a $25,000 bond.
Per the conditions of his bond, Bouaichi then returned to his home in Maryland to await his trial, which was rescheduled again to August 17, according to court records.
On July 29 at roughly 6:20 a.m., Karla Dominguez was found dead outside of her apartment on S. Greenmount Drive with “multiple gunshot wounds on her upper body.”
Ibrahm Bouaichi was named as the primary suspect in her homicide two days later on July 31.
Bouaichi disappeared, leading police to ask Alexandrians for help in locating him on August 4.
Alexandria police found Bouaichi in Maryland the next day at 11 a.m. Bouaichi fled in his vehicle, and police pursued.
Bouaichi’s car crashed soon after the chase began. Officers found Bouaichi in his vehicle alive but with “a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Police transported Bouaichi to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition as of Thursday.
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Sam Medley is a journalist at the Tennessee Star and Star News Network. You can follow Sam on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
