Teen cleared of charges
Boy’s 22-year-old brother still held in connection with their parents’ killing
SAN JOSE — He had been accused in one of San Jose’s most shocking crimes — the double murder of his own mother and father — but as Omar Golamrabbi, 17, shuffled into the courtroom Friday, shackled in leg irons and handcuffs, the burden of suspicion was about to be lifted from his slight, stooped shoulders.
Golamrabbi, looking tired and slightly bewildered, sat waiting for someone to speak. Deputy district attorney Matt Braker rose to say that his office had analyzed material taken from the grisly crime scene and conducted further interviews since the murders April 24. Now he no longer believed there was enough evidence to proceed against the boy, who was being held in a juvenile detention center when his senior class at Evergreen Valley High School graduated May 24.
Judge Sharon A. Chatman brought down her gavel with a crack, and in a loud, clear voice declared, “All charges are dismissed.” In three minutes, it was over. And yet it was far from over for Golamrabbi.
He had been charged along with his older brother, 22-year-old Hasib Bin Golamrabbi, who is still being held in connection with the murder of their parents in the family’s hillside Evergreen home. When police discovered the bodies of Golam Rabbi, 59, and Shamima Rabbi, 57, they found bizarre messages scrawled on the wall. “Sorry my first kill was clumsy,” one said.
Omar Golamrabbi was believed to be in the home when the murders occurred and had seemed to implicate himself by going to an anime convention with his brother in Oakland after the slayings, both of them seemingly acting as if nothing had happened.
“The defendant did engage in behavior that was highly suspicious,” Braker said outside the courtroom. “But we have no hard evidence.”
Jessica Delgado, the deputy alternate public defender who was Omar Golamrabbi’s cocounsel, said he was a “witness” to what happened, and while she declined to elaborate upon what he saw, Delgado argued that the circumstances of his parents’ deaths could explain how he was able to continue attending school for three days before his arrest.
“Sometimes when traumatic things happen to someone,” she said following the dismissal, “they may behave in ways that don’t seem expected or normal. I think in this case, Omar’s affect, and the way that he was processing his grief and his trauma, may have been confusing to law enforcement.”
Omar Golamrabbi’s attorneys issued a statement thanking the District Attorney’s Office for continuing to examine the evidence “with an open mind,” despite intense media attention created by the circumstances surrounding the crime. “We’re really grateful to the DA’s office for continuing to evaluate this case with an open mind,” said Sajid A. Khan, of the public defender’s office. “It required a certain amount of courage for them to do so.”
Omar Golamrabbi was released from detention within hours of the hearing Friday, but if his guilt was no longer in question, there was much that still was. He was getting out, but to what? To where? To whom? With his parents dead, and his older brother in jail, charged with two counts of murder, Omar became a ward of the county, dependent upon a social worker to find an appropriate home for him.
“He is, of course, happy not to be in custody,” said Delgado. “But this is a very difficult situation for him.”