ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601090025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
ALEXANDRIA - An Alexandria car dealer whose lot was raided by FBI agents last month has pleaded guilty to tax evasion and money laundering, acknowledging to a federal judge that he regularly sold expensive cars to drug dealers.
Mohammad Hajimohammad, 36, owner of Select Auto Imports, also agreed to forfeit 39 cars seized from his business. In a plea agreement reached Thursday, he also agreed to pay $465,000 in back taxes and penalties.
Hajimohammad, who is to be sentenced June 14, faces 46 to 57 months in prison under federal guidelines.
FBI agents seized more than 100 cars from Select and two Arlington car dealerships in what officials described as a crackdown on car dealers who sell to drug dealers.
According to affidavits in those cases, the dealerships regularly accepted large amounts of cash and often allowed buyers to purchase the cars in other people's names to evade federal reporting requirements.
No criminal charges have been filed against the Arlington dealerships. - Associated Press 75-year-old had right to shoot, kill intruder
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A 75-year-old woman was justified when she shot and killed a man trying to enter her home, Albemarle County police said after receiving autopsy reports and completing an investigation.
Edith Rea killed Charles Roger Awkard Jr. when she shot him in the chest just before dawn on Dec. 9. Rea and her daughter, who was visiting, said the man tried to enter the house after claiming his car had broken down.
The women told Awkard they would call authorities for him, but while Rea made the call, Awkard attempted to enter the house, police said.
After loading her single-shot shotgun, Rea warned Awkard she had a gun, police said. When he continued trying to get in, Rea shot him, police said.
Investigators later learned that Awkard's car, parked about 100 yards away, was fully operable. They also said he had a high concentration of cocaine in his body and had given the women a false name and phone number. - Associated Press Acme shelving plant unsafe, workers say
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A man who lost two fingers and part of a third in an accident at a Crozet shelving factory is the third person to be seriously injured at the plant in less than 40 days, two plant workers said.
Roger Payne, 19, had two fingers and half of his index finger amputated at University of Virginia Hospital on Thursday. He was injured when a machine that bends metal caught his hand at Acme Design Technology Co.
Tom Hall, the company's owner, said he requested an inspection by federal safety investigators following the accident, and that inspectors from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration have already visited the plant.
Dabney Heywood Fortune, an employee from Afton, said he lost half his thumb in an accident at the factory on Nov. 28. About two weeks later, he said, a part-time employee's index finger was mangled. - Associated Press
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