The State Attorney’s Office Cold Case Homicide Unit, in partnership with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, has led to Sunni Rasshad Jahbari being sentenced to 20 years in prison for a murder in 2015.
As jurors were deliberating, just after 9 p.m. last night, the defendant entered a plea to all charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on each count to run concurrently. The charges he has been adjudicated guilty of are:
• Count I: Second Degree Murder with a Firearm
• Count II: Robbery – Firearm Death or Great Bodily Harm
• Count III: Human Trafficking Commercial Sexual Activity with a Minor
• Count IV: Sexual Battery when Victim Incapacitated with Multiple Perpetrators
The defendant was also designated a sexual predator.
Assistant State Attorney Dan Feinberg, Cold Case Homicide Unit Chief, and Assistant State Attorney Erin Hughes prosecuted the case.
The case started in 2015, when human remains were found in a vehicle that had been set on fire in a remote area of Lehigh Acres. An autopsy revealed the victim had been shot.
An extensive investigation led to the defendant being identified as the killer. He was arrested in December 2022 in Los Angeles.
The victim responded to a “Backpage” ad of the 16-year-old victim who was being trafficked and sexually battered by the defendant. When the homicide victim arrived to meet the girl from the ad, posted by the defendant, the defendant attempted to rob the victim. During the victim’s attempt to resist the robbery, the defendant shot and killed the victim.
Based on the investigation, cell phone records, and cell phones collected from the defendant and his accomplices, detectives were able to identify the human trafficking victim and build a case.
Following the shooting, the defendant and his accomplices placed the homicide victim’s body in his car and set the car on fire to destroy evidence, including the body. However, the medical examiner was able to identify the victim, and detectives were able to piece the details of the crime together.
Samantha Syoen – State Attorney’s Office Communicatiosn Director