By Lookout Staff

January 24, 2025 -- A Michigan man who stabbed a fellow hometown resident to death in a Pier parking lot in November 2022 was sentenced this month to 25 years to life in state prison.

The sentence, which carries a one year enhancement for using a knife, comes two years after Santa Monica police detectives arrested Mohamed Abou-Arabi, 25, at his Dearborn home in January 2023.

Abou-Arabi, who has two prior arrests for misdemeanor weapons offenses in Michigan, refused to provide a motive for killing the victim, identified as Mujtaba Anwer Al Ashoor, 21, also of Dearborn, Michigan.

Al Ashoor was found on November 2, 2022 lying dead in the driver's seat of a vehicle parked at the west end of the lot just north of the Pier facing the beach, according to police.

Forensics specialists collected "hundreds of DNA swabs and latent fingerprints at the scene, along with more than a thousand photos," said Lt. Erika Aklufi, the Police Department spokesperson.

Using evidence collected from the vehicle and other investigative tools, the murder suspect was identified as Mohamed Abou-Arabi of Dearborn, Michigan.

After the LA County District Attorney’s Office filed a single count of murder "with an enhancement for utilizing a knife to commit the fatal attack," a warrant was issued for Abou-Arabi’s arrest.

In January 2023, SMPD Detectives arrested Abou-Arabi after a search warrant was served at his Dearborn home, where detectives collected additional evidence tying him to the killing, police said.

On January 18, he was extradited and booked into the Santa Monica Jail, and after a trial in September 2024, the jury found Abou-Arabi guilty of first-degree murder.