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Court Erupts As Iraqi Convicted Of Killing Wife

An Iraqi immigrant has been convicted of bludgeoning his wife to death, prompting an outburst by him and several family members in the courtroom.

Kassim Alhimidi shook his head and wagged his finger as the guilty verdict was being read out in a San Diego courtroom.

Speaking in Arabic, he shouted: "I'm not a killer", according to his translator.

His oldest son shouted obscenities and proclaimed his father's innocence before guards wrestled him out of the courtroom. Another son also shouted in his father's defence.

The victim's mother said Alhimidi deserved worse, according to the official court translator, Nahla David.

Alhimidi could be sentenced to life in prison for killing his 32-year-old wife, Shaima Alawadi, at their home at El Cajon, a san Diego suburb.

The case began as a hate crime investigation two years ago because a note found next to her body said: "This is my country, go back to yours, you terrorist."

Investigators later determined the threatening note was a photocopy - possibly of a note found outside the family home a week earlier by one of the couple's five children.

The couple's eldest daughter, then 17, found her mother in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of their home in March 2012, her body tangled in a computer cord and desk chair.

She had multiple skull fractures from blunt force and died two days after the attack. A sliding glass door was shattered.

Prosecutors said Alhimidi was distraught over his wife's plans to leave him and lied to police about his troubled marriage.

Defence lawyers said Alhimidi loved his wife, that he was not a violent man. They pointed out he could have stayed in Iraq after her burial but returned to the US and cooperated with police until he was arrested months after the killing.

Alhimidi will be sentenced on May 15.

El Cajon is in the heart of east San Diego County, which is home to the second-largest Iraqi community in the US, behind Detroit.